Chapter 307

Entrance ... The king ... He enters ... the king blesses. The throne dais of the god Anu ... His ..., the throne of the god Enlil ... He enters ... Before the god Sin ... In the midst of the courtyard ... He prays. He sets up ... before the god Shamash. He sets up. Before the goddess Ishtar of Nineveh ... Before the goddess Ishtar of Arbela ... In the midst of the gate ... He places the throne, the dwelling of the goddess Ishtar-dīnit. He prays. On the day, the king’s meal: Fine beer šikru reštu, wine karānu ... Honey dišpu, ghee ḫimētu, a display offering taklimtu, dates suluppu ... Salt, juniper burāšu ... Before the god Ashur ... He sets up. An offering bundle riksu, incense qutrinnu ... Before the gods ... He sets up. He sprinkles. He requests life balāṭu, long days, stable years... For the king, his lord. He blesses the king. The throne, the dwelling of the god Adad, he sets up. He places. An offering bundle, incense ... Before the god Adad and the goddess Shala ... He sets up. He sprinkles. He requests life, long days, stable years... For the king, his lord. He blesses the king. He sets up. He places. An offering bundle, incense ... Before the god ... and the goddess Gula ... An offering bundle, incense ... Before the god Ninurta ... He sets up. He sprinkles. He requests life, long days, stable years... For the king, his lord. He blesses the king. He sets up. He places. An offering bundle, incense ... Before the god ... and the goddess Nusku ... He sets up. He sprinkles. He requests life, long days, stable years... For the king, his lord. He blesses the king. Regular offering ginû ... He sets up ... Abzu ... The upper heavens ... The god Anu ... The dwelling of the god Enlil ... The ... of the god Ea ... The upper heavens are of luludānītu-stone, they belong to Anu. He settled the 300 Igigi within it. The middle heavens are of saggilmud-stone, they belong to the Igigi. Bel sat on the high dais within it, in a lapis lazuli shrine.⁠ The lower heavens are of lapis lazuli uqnû-stone, they belong to Bel. He drew the constellations, the images of the gods within it.

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 24:10 and KAR 307

Hebrew Bible · Ancient Near East, Assyrian

Summary

The Mesopotamian text KAR 307 describes layered heavens with floors of blue precious stones, similar to Exodus describing a sapphire floor beneath God's feet. Both reflect ancient Near Eastern cosmology with a solid dome dividing earth and heaven.

Passages

Exodus 24:10

Hebrew Bible

8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” 9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up, 10 and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement made of blue sapphire, clear like the sky itself. 11 But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank.

750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

KAR 307

Ancient Near East, Assyrian · Cuneiform Texts from Assur

The upper heavens ... The god Anu ... The dwelling of the god Enlil ... The ... of the god Ea ... The upper heavens are of luludānītu-stone, they belong to Anu. He settled the 300 Igigi within it. The middle heavens are of saggilmud-stone, they belong to the Igigi. Bel sat on the high dais within it, in a lapis lazuli shrine. The lower heavens are of lapis lazuli uqnû-stone, they belong to Bel. He drew the constellations, the images of the gods within it.

700 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KAR

References

"... it must be assumed that the floors of each level of the heavens were composed of a different type of stone, and that there was open space between each stone floor, just as there is open space between the earth's surface and the Lower Heavens. Furthermore, it may be assumed that each stone floor was visible from below and served as a roof for the region below. These assumptions find support in a parallel from Exodus 24:9-10, where the floor of heaven is apparently built of blue brick ... Hebrew 'sapphire', which is equated with Greek sapheiros and Latin sappirus, is a blue stone and has often been identified with lapis-lazuli. Thus, the blue brick floor of heaven in Exodus, when seen from below, may be identified with the blue background color of the sky on clear days and the darker blue of the clear night sky. In KAR 307, Anu and the Igigi apparently stand on luludanitu-stone and saggilmud-stone floors of the Upper and Middle Heavens, just as the God of Israel stands on a blue 'sapphire' brick heavenly floor in Exodus ..."

Wayne Horowitzh, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1998), 9.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

KAR2 chapters

Compare Exodus 24:10 and KAR 307

Summary

Passages

Exodus 24:10

KAR 307

References

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