Lamentations over the Destruction of Ur 356
353 Your faithful en-priestess, voluptuously chosen, in the Ekišnuĝal, 354 From the shrine to the ĝipar is no longer joyfully proceeding. 355 The aua-priests, in your house of festivals, are no longer celebrating festivals. 356 They are no longer playing for you the šem and ala drums that gladden the heart, nor the tigi. 357 The black-headed people are no longer bathing for your festivals, 358 Like a thread their lives were cut off in the dirt, their features have changed.
Lamentations 5:14
12 Princes were hung by their hands; elders were mistreated. 13 The young men perform menial labor; boys stagger from their labor. 14 The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped playing their music. 15 Our hearts no longer have any joy; our dancing is turned to mourning. 16 The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!
Notes and References
"... the Book of Lamentations was written in the 6th century BCE and the latest manuscript of the Sumerian Laments is from the 16th century BCE, a gap of about a millennium separates them. Subsequently, direct influence seems to be out of the question. An important element in the comparison between the Book of Lamentations and the Sumerian Lament tradition is therefore finding a way to bridge this gap in time. It is possible that Judeans were familiar with the Sumerian Laments even if they were written long before the destruction of Jerusalem ... Samet points out three textual metaphoric similarities between the Book of Lamentations and the Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur. The first concerns a reference to music when describing the effects of the devastation. In Lamentations 5:14, the old men are gone from the gate, the young men from their music. In the Ur Lament (356) ‘they are no longer playing for you the šem and ala drums that gladden the heart, nor the tigi.’ Secondly, ceramic pots are used metaphorically for dying people. In Lamentations 4:2, the precious children of Zion; once valued as gold – Alas, they are accounted as earthen pots, work of a potter’s hands! In the Ur Lament (211) ‘its people littered its sides like potsherds.’ The third example given is a more famous one, concerning the fox wandering through the ruins of the city. In Lamentations 5:17, because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate; foxes walk over it. In the Ur Lament (269) ‘in the rivers of my city, dust has gathered, foxholes are made therein’ ..."
Filarski, Wered Lamentations: A Comparison Between Mesopotamia and Judea (pp. 87-98) Jewish Bible Quarterly 45, No. 2, 2017