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I built the altar on the peak of the mountain.
Adgur (libation) jars by sevens I placed.
Below them I spread reeds, pine wood, and spices.
The gods smelt the savour. The gods smelled the sweet savour.
The gods like flies over the master of the sacrifice gathered.
The great goddess lifted up the mighty bow which Anu had created as his glory.
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Let the doer of sin bear his sin, and let the transgressor bear his transgression.
Instead of making a deluge, may lions increase,
and men be decreased (also jackals, famine, pestilence).
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He turned himself to us, and established himself to us in a covenant."
A few notes may be of service. The words Zir napisti bulaah, "preserve the seed of
life", remind us of the words of Gen. 7: 3, "to keep seed alive". The reference to
substituting the depredation of the lion, jackal, famine, and pestilence for the flood is a
faint echo of the promise of Gen. 8: 21, 22. Further, the lion and jackal were emblems
of the god of death, and the sword, famine, and pestilence are brought together in several
parts of Scripture (see Jer. 14: 12; 27: 13; II Sam. 24: 15; Rev. 6:). Some of the
figures used to describe the deluge in this tablet remind one of the majestic Psalm of
Habakkuk. See, for example, Hab. 3: 5, "Before Him went the pestilence, and burning
coals went forth at His feet". The darkness that is spoken of in the line, "the darkened
earth to waste is turned", is a word which suggests the "darkness that might be felt" of the
Egyptian plague, while the combination of waste and darkness reminds one of Gen. 1: 2.
The Scriptures tell us that the ark rested "upon the mountains of Ararat", not as often
quoted, "upon Mount Ararat". The Chaldean tablet speaks of the ship resting upon "the
mountain of Nizir". Ararat is written Uradhu in the inscriptions, and there denotes
Armenia, and more particularly the district about Lake Van. An inscription of
Assur-nazzir-pal places Nizir in the tableland of Pamir, a little south of Rowandiz. The
word "Armenia" of Isa. 37: 38 is in the Hebrew Ararat. The introduction of the
rainbow into the account is noteworthy. There is also a hymn wherein occur the words,
kistu abubi, "the bow of the deluge", Hebrew, kesheth, which differs only in
pronunciation from the Assyrian. As in the article dealing with the creation, so here, we
quote the words of Rev. John Urquhart:--
"Notwithstanding these numerous and striking agreements, the Babylonian legend is
neither progenitor nor rival of the Scripture. It is defile and defaced; and it contains
distortions of the truth grave enough to make us sensible of how much we owe to this
despised Genesis. . . . The truth was there; but it was inextricably mingled with error
which spread darkness not only over the earth's past, but also over heaven. . . . For the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to have been declared by Moses, he had
to pass the Egyptian priests and the Chaldean documents, and to speak with God."