“... (1) Comparative Diction C. Cohen (1993) has studied the themes of the shining divine counte- nance and of the lifting of the divine countenance, as expressed in the biblical benediction, with special reference to Mesopotamian literary sources. The precise semantic equivalent in Akkadian of the Hebrew idiom he'fr panfm 'to cause the face to shine' is panf nummuru 'to cause the face to shine, be bright'. Cohen cites a statement from a twelfth-century boundary stone (kudurru) telling that the god Enlil looked favorably upon the Babylonian king, Nebuchadrezzar I: ina nummur panf8u damquti, ina bunnf8u namruti 'with his(Enlil's) beautiful, radiant face, with his shining countenance' (Hinke 1911: 144, Pines 22-24). Cohen also calls attention to a Ugaritic letter, writ- ten by a prince to his mother, the queen of Ugarit, in which he tells of his favorable reception by the Hittite king, referred to as "the Sun": 'umy td'ky 'rbt lpn sps, wpn sps nr by mid 'My mother, know that I entered into the presence (= face) of "the Sun," and the face of "the Sun" shone strongly upon me' (KTU 2.16:7-10). There are other Akkadian idioms that closely approximate Hebrew nasa' panfm 'el 'to lift the face toward'. These include panf nadanu 'to direct the face toward', resa 8uqqu 'to lift the head (toward)', panf SU U UUTU 'to turn the face around toward', and resa nasJ 'to lift the head toward'. ...”