Texts in Conversation
Psalm 74 mourns the destruction of Israel’s sanctuary by enemies who set it on fire. The Sumerian Lamentation Over Sumer and Ur uses the same imagery of a storm destroying city and temple together.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Lamentation Over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur 109
Ancient Near East
106 In the Enamtila, the palace of his delight, he was crying bitterly. 107 The devastating flood was leveling everything, 108 Like a great storm it roared over the earth, who could escape it? 109 To destroy the city, to destroy the temple, 110 That traitors would lay on top of loyal men, and 111 The blood of traitors flow upon loyal men, 112 The first kirugu. 113 The storms gather to strike like a flood. 114 -the antiphone of the kirugu. 115 The temple of Kis, ljursagkalama, was destroyed, 116 Zababa took an unfamiliar path away from his beloved dwelling, 117 Mother Ba~u was lamenting bitterly in her Urukug, 118 “Alas, the destroyed city, my destroyed temple!” bitterly she cries.
Date: 2000 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Psalm 74:7
Hebrew Bible
5 They invade like lumberjacks swinging their axes in a thick forest. 6 And now they are tearing down all its engravings with axes and crowbars. 7 They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrate your dwelling place by knocking it to the ground. 8 They say to themselves, “We will oppress all of them.” They burn down all the places in the land where people worship God.
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Notes and References
"... The laments over the destruction of cities and temples, and their successors, the tambourine laments and harp songs, display many features in common with the Biblical Book of Lamentations and with the congregational laments of the Psalter such as Psalms 44, 74, 79, 80 and 83, as well as with the ‘jeremiads’ of Jeremiah. In both, an angry deity has abandoned his city and caused or ordered its destruction, which he is invited to inspect. There are also features in the former lacking in the latter, such as the special laments attributed to goddesses, or the appeal to lesser deities for their intercession. ..."
Hallo, William W.
Origins: The Ancient Near Eastern Background of Some Modern Western Institutions
(p. 239) E.J. Brill, 1996
* 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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