the tombs, served as
well to secure a supply of fresh water for the dead. The wailing for the
dead took place not only immediately after death, but subsequently.
Ashurbanabal speaks of visiting the graves of his ancestors. He appears
at the tomb with rent garments, pours out a libation to the memory of
the dead, and offers up a prayer addressed to them. We have every reason
to believe that the graves were frequently visited by the survivors. The
festival of Tammuz became an occasion[1293] when the memory of those who
had entered Aralu was recalled.

While there are many details connected with the ceremonies for the dead
still to be determined, what has been ascertained illustrates how
closely and consistently these ceremonies followed the views held by the
Babylonians and Assyrians regarding the life after death. Everything
connected with death is gloomy. The grave is as dark as Aralu; the
funeral rites consist of dirges that lament not so much the loss
sustained by the living as the sad fate in store for the dead. Not a ray
of sunshine illumines the darkness that surrounds these rites. All that
is hoped for is to protect the dead against the attack of demons greedy
for human flesh, to secure rest for the body, and to guard the dead
against hunger and thirst.

It is almost startling to note, to what a degree the views embodied in
Old Testament writings regarding the fate of the dead, coincide with
Babylonian conceptions. The descriptions of Sheol found in Job, in the
Psalms, in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and elsewhere are hardly to be distinguished
from those that we have encountered in Babylonian literature. For
Job,[1294] Sheol is

The land of darkness and deep shadows.
The land of densest gloom and not of light.
Even where there is a gleam, there it is as dark night.[1295]

The description might serve as a paraphrase of the opening lines in the
story of Ishtar's journey. The Hebrew Sheol is situated, like the
Babylonian Aralu, deep down in the earth.[1296] It is pictured as a
cavern. The entrance to it is through gates that are provided with
bolts. Sheol is described as a land filled with dust. Silence reigns
supreme. It is the gathering-place of all the living, without exception.
He who sinks into Sheol does not rise up again.

He does not return to his house.
His place knows him no more.[1297]

It is, clearly, 'a land without return,' as the Babylonians conceived
it. The condition of the dead in Sheol is s