When no one of the gods had been called into being,
And none bore a name, and no destinies were fixed.
Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven.

An idea of the character of these deities may be gathered from the
description of a heavenly banquet scene in the same poem:

They made ready the feast, at the banquet [they sat],
They ate bread, they mingled the wine.
The sweet drink made them drunken ...
By drinking they were drunken, their bodies were filled.
They shouted aloud, their heart was exalted,
Then for Marduk, their avenger, did they decree destiny.

Certainly, not all the religious thinkers of Babylonia held these low
conceptions. In some of their prayers and hymns they rise to lofty
spiritual and ethical conceptions which compare quite favorably with
expressions found in the Old Testament. In a hymn addressed to
Shamash, the sun-god, are found these lines:

Who plans evil--his horn thou dost destroy,
Whoever in fixing boundaries annuls rights.
The unjust judge thou restrainest with force.

{174}

Whoever accepts a bribe, who does not judge justly--on him
thou imposest sin.
But he who does not accept a bribe, who has a care for the
oppressed,
To him Shamash is gracious, his life he prolongs.
The judge who renders a just decision
Shall end in a palace, the place of princes shall be his dwelling.
* * * * *
The seed of those who act unjustly shall not flourish.
What their mouth declares in thy presence
Thou shalt burn it up, what they purpose wilt thou annul.
Thou knowest their transgressions; the declaration of the
wicked thou dost cast aside.
Every one wherever he may be is in thy care.
Thou directest their judgments, the imprisoned dost thou
liberate.
Thou hearest, O Shamash, petition, prayer, and appeal,
Humility, prostration, petitioning, and reverence.
With loud voice the unfortunate one cries to thee.
The weak, the exhausted, the oppressed, the lowly,
Mother, wife, maid appeal to thee,
He who is removed from his family, he that dwelleth far from
his city.[15]

Far be it from the writer to rob the religion of Babylonia of any of
its glory. Nevertheless, he ventures to assert without any fear of
contradiction that we may search the pantheon of Babylon, from one end
to the other, and we shall not find one god who in nature and character
can compare with the Jehovah of Isra