Texts in Conversation
Ezekiel 8 describes women weeping for Tammuz, a moment that highlights the Hebrew Bible's familiarity with Mesopotamian traditions. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Tammuz is one of Ishtar’s tragic lovers, whose death is mourned each year with ritual lament.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Epic of Gilgamesh VI 46
Ancient Near East, Babylonian
42 What bridegroom of yours endured forever? 43 What brave warrior of yours is there [who] went up [heaven?] 44 Come, let me count [the number] of your lovers. 45 As for him of… […] his arm. 46 To Dumuzi the husband of your youth, 47 to him you have allotted perpetual weeping, year on year. 48 You loved the speckled allallu-bird, 49 you struck him and broke his wing, 50 (now) he stands in the woods crying “My wing!” 51 You loved the lion, perfect in strength, 52 seven and seven pits you have dug for him.
Date: 2100 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Ezekiel 8:14
Hebrew Bible
12 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the chamber of his idolatrous images? For they think, ‘The Lord does not see us! The Lord has abandoned the land!’” 13 He said to me, “You will see them practicing even greater abominations!” 14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I noticed women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see even greater abominations than these!”
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... These lines refer to the annual festival of wailing for Tammuz (compare Ezekiel 8:14), the god of vegetation, who was believed to descend to the underworld each autumn and to return with the advent of spring ..."
Alexander Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1973), 51.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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