30. _eri-ta an-na-ta gar(ŠÂ)-ra-ni û(UD) ì(KA)-ḥar-ra na-nam_ When he establishes himself out of the city out of heaven, he fixes the day of curse. 31. _... êr(A.ŠI) lim(LIB)-ma ^dimmer Mer(IM)_ ..... Hymn to Adad. This hymn we find to be full of action. The lightning flashes in the first line, and we see at least three distinct kinds of storm placed on the scene, one succeeding the other. The thunder storm first passes over our head. We see the lightning, we hear the roar of the thunder, the earth is placed in fear, the day turns dark, the top of the mountain is smitten, the very gods themselves are terrified. Secondly comes the flood. The storm of the hour is lengthened into one of days. It becomes a deluge of judgment on the earth. The words say seven days, but in such poetic discourse seven might perhaps simply mean “many”. Finally, there is a decided change in the scene. The flood has passed away. The death-destroying hail-storm falls upon us, not simply the little hail-stones, but the great hail-stones. The day, of course, has come. But the effects of Adad’s power so artistically set forth in this hymn are secondary, as placed beside the dignity of the god himself. The word of Adad is absolute and all-powerful. He is a god of great wrath. He is a real bull-god, of heaven and earth. He can put the heavens out of sight. He can make day as black as the darkest night. He can split the earth with his lightning. He can flood the land with water. He can pelt its inhabitants with stones. Yet in all this he consults with father Bêl. Obverse 1. _[ḥad]-ê-a mu-zu an[-zak-ku]_ In the lightning flash thou proclaimest thy name! _ḥad-ê-a_ is a _ḥal_-clause, consisting of noun _ḥad_, participle _ê_ and postposition _a_, and means “in the going out of the sceptre”, or freely, “in the lightning flash”. The apodosis is _mu-zu an-zak-ku_. _ḥad_ (PA) equals _ḥaṭṭu_, “sceptre” (Br. 5573). The value _ḥad_ may be of Semitic origin, but note that its cognate _ḥud_ is equal to _namûru_, “brightness” (Br. 5582), as is also _kun_, another value of PA “staff”; then PA = “a lighted torch”. _ê_ we have had as equal to _a⋅û_ (Hymn to Bêl, line 15). _ê_ is also equal to _šûpû_, “flashing” (Br. 5638). _a_ equals _ina_, “in” (Br. 11365). _mu-zu_ means “thy name”. _mu_ equals _šumu_, “name” (Br. 1235).