Omens were likewise derived from the particular
• I'/IU ( = iiuSo>.»€) is not BO frecpiently employed lo the sing. OS the ptur. fomi of n/mi/dn, which takes the plsoa of jinn Cplur.) ('Wellh. l.c. p. 167 footnote).
day of the month on whicli an eclipse takes place; from the appearances ordisajipearances of the planet Venus (Islitar). In Eawl. iv. pi. 32, 33 we have a calendar of the intercalated month Elul. The deity is mentioned to which each day is sacred, and certain sacrifices are prescribed and precau- tions indicated. The 7th, I4th, 21st, and 28th days are called evil [limnu) ; see art. Sabbath, p. 319*; and cf. Schrader, COT L p. 19f., and Jensen in ZA iv. (18S9) p. 274 If.
(2) Varied forms of abnormal birth are specified, and the events which they portend —
* If a woman gives birth to a child with the right ear missing, the days of the ruler will be long. If a woman givea birth to a child with the left ear missing, distress will enter the land and weaken it.'
Ttie abnormal features in the birth of young Iambs were carefully noted and interpreted —
' If the young one has no right ear, the rule of the king will come to an end, his palace will be uprooted, and the jjopuiation of the country will be swept away. The king will lose judg- ment, the produce of the country will be slight, the enemy will cut olT the supply of water. If the left ear of the young one is missing, the deity will hear the prayer of the king, tlie king will cajiture his enemy's land, the palace of the enemy will be destroyed.*
(3) The number and variety of cases here as in (1) and (2) are endless.
* If a dog enters the palace and crouches on the throne, that palace will suffer a distressful fate. If a dog enters a palace and crouches on the couch, no one will enjoy that palace in peace.'
The colour of a dog that enters a palace or of the locusts that enter a house, will aflect the precise form of good which is por- tended by the occurrence.
The gods were constantly approached with ques- tions involving the future interests of the State or ailecting the fate of a military campaign. Knud- tzun in his Assijr. Gcbete an den tionnengvti fiir Staat und koniglickes Uaus, has devoted a careful examination to these questions addres.sed to Samas the Sungod, which are sliown to follow a fixed pattern. Fir.st we have a series of questions which the god is petitioned to answer. The god is then implored not to be angry, and to jjrotect the sup- pliant against errors unwittingly committed in the sacrificial rites —
*0 Shamash, great lord, as I ask thee, do thou In true mercy answer me.
' From this day the 3rd day of this month of lyyar to the 11th day of the month Ab of this year, a period of one hundred days and one hundred nights, is the prescribed term for the priestly activity. "
' VVill within this period Kashtariti, together with his soldiery, will the army of the Giniirri, the army of the Medes, will the army of the Manneans, or will any enemy wliat.>^never succeed in carrying out their plan, whether by stratagem (V) or main force, whether by the force of weapons of war and battle or by the axe, whether by a breach made with war-machinery or battering- rams or by hunger, wliether by the powers residing in the name of a god or goddess . . . will these aforementioned, as many as are required to take a cit.v, actually capture the city Kishsossu, in-iictiate into the interior of that same city Kislisassu. . . . Thy great divine power knows it. . . . Will it actually come to )>as8?'
We observe that all jiossiblo contingencies are specifled as in a lawyer's deed, and no loophole is left by whieli tlie deity may escape the obligation of a detlnite answer. (See Jastrow, p. 834 B.)
How far Israel, and more particularly Judah, at the do.seof the 8th cent, became inlluenced by IJab. or Assyr. practices, it would be very diliicult to say. That theolder and more highly developed civilization of the Euphrates and Tigris should have afiected the Palestmian tribes at this time is surely more than possible. In the loth and earlier centuries B.C. that influence was powerfully felt through- out the Western border (mM amnrri), as the Tel el- Amarna tablets clearly testify, and it spread into Egypt itself. Moreover, we may infer from cer- tain indications that some inlluenccs from Bab. and
* This expression is interpreted to mean tliat the priest Is only asked to give a reply ooDoeming the events of the hundred days specifled In the text.
600 SOOTHSAYER. SOOTHSAYING___JOOT^^
Assyr, divination not improbably lound iboir ^^a^ into tl,e S<,uthem kin;4<lom. (1) \\e know tbat Ahaz was particularly .susceptible to foreign re- f^^ i".'-nco^^ ^a not ^.csrtate to bo.^w
^^T^^'tL^^^ show^ tllai.tl.
relation, between Judah and Babyloma .er^ int.
mate (*> K 20'='-). (3) The proneness of A laz to
Suance with AW-ia at an earUor Per-d may have opened the way for the entrance of Absyro- Kabylonian traditi..us. (4) If we co'"^>"« . f ^,^^ facts with Is ■2\ where relerence is made o the Buperstiliuus tendencies vh.cli lY'^Vp ^^. ',™^'; and where these arc ascribed to the ' .1^^ ^^ " ^inaj^ find the true clue to the >m-anin<; of this tfJ^J"^^^ The true readin" here lias been conjectuiallj re- stored y crTtics with some probabUity in the term f °r,::.-Jp) -nrp inSd -d 'for they are tull of south- savers from" the East,' which harmonizes with thf parallel clause that foUow;s Tenian (Edom also had its soothsayers (Jer 49', Ob »). W as tue