d
Testament, is nothing but a euphemistic phrase (suggested by a more
refined age) to strip oneself. Certainly, when we find that in the days
of Saul, the seers went about naked, there can no longer be any doubt
that there was a time when the Hebrews, too, like the Arabs and
Babylonians, entered the holy presence naked.

The institution of daily sacrifices is vouched for in the case of the
larger religious centers like Babylonia, Borsippa, Sippar, Cuthah, as
well as Nineveh for the late periods. Nebuchadnezzar, for example, tells
us[1498] that he provided for a sacrifice of six lambs daily in the
temple E-shidlam at Cuthah, sacred to Nergal and Laz; while for Nabu's
temple at Borsippa, the daily sacrifices were arranged on a still larger
scale, and included two fattened bulls of perfect form, sixteen smaller
animals, besides offerings of fish, birds, leek, various kinds of wine,
honey, cream, and the finest oil,--all intended, as the king tells us,
for the table of Nabu and his consort. No doubt the daily official
sacrifices at Marduk's temple were even more elaborate. The custom of
regular sacrifices in the larger temples may be traced back to an early
period. The technical terms for such sacrifices are _sattuku_ and
_ginu_. Both terms convey the idea of being "fixed," perpetual,[1499]
and suggest a comparison with the Pentateuchal institution of the
_tamid_,[1500] _i.e._, the daily sacrifice. Whenever the kings in their
inscriptions mention the regular sacrifices, it is in almost all cases
with reference to their reinstitution of an old custom that had been
allowed to fall into neglect (owing to political disturbances which
always affected the temples), and not as an innovation. Innovations were
limited to increasing the amounts of these regular sacrifices. So, for
example, Nabubaliddin restores and increases the _gine_ of the great
temple E-babbara at Sippar.[1501] But regular sacrifices do not
necessarily involve daily offerings. The same terms, _ginu_ and
_sattuku_, are applied frequently to monthly offerings, and except in
the large religious centers, regular sacrifices were in all
probabilities brought on certain days of each month, and not daily. The
days thus singled out, as will be shown further on, differed for various
sanctuaries. It would be important if we could determine the share in
these regular sacrifices taken by the people at large, but the material
at hand does not suffice for settling the question.