Deutero-Isaiah and Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions

have tried to show in my Ancient Mesopotacmia (pp. 200 f.), such pairs of demons are thought to accompany, unseen, the individual, dispensing to him either fortune or misfortune. I have explained this phenomenon (well-known from other civilizations) in terms of external souls which accompany the individual to the fulfillment of his own nature or-what amounts to the same thinghis own destiny.'9 In the light of what has been suggested here about the demonic of the who roam the earth at night, observe or spy on its inhabitants, help the pious, check on their acts, nay even-as the case of Job shows-on the motivation for their overt behavior, one can well see a similar role for the Mesopotamian m a s k i m or rdbisu, i. e. a role which is characteristically ambivalent: beneficial as well as demonic. Since we have, of course, no direct proof we can only point out parallelisms between the ever-lurking rdbisu and the swift-moving, demonic of the Lord and, eventually, the Satan, the accuser . . . which accused them before our God day and night (Rev. xii 10). In the present investigation, we have ranged over a wide area and have cut across many boundary lines separating periods and civilizations. This was necessary to gather the evidence for a rather specific social practice and its institutionalized modus operandi. Informers, accusers, internal spies, censors, secret agents and their like form, in all these civilizations, then as well as today, an effective and often unobtrusive web, that with constant vigilance and demonic effectiveness directs, controls and coerces the individual in his social setting. The documentary sources at our disposal hardly mention the day-to-day doings of that host of ever present and interfering eyes and ears. We learn more about them when their activities are transferred to a supernatural level and they appear either as evil demons, as the swift messengers and servants or the Eyes of the Lord. 19 A further point of parallelism between the rdbipvu and the sdu is that the former serves as protector and guardian of the entrance to the palace (YOS 10 25: 62), also of the bit takulti (see Frankena Takultu p. 109 No. 186) just as the latter does (see CAD sub aladlammtl)

Ancient history · Cuneiform · Ancient Near East History · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History