It is evident that this hymn to the Creator emanated from what Sir Henry Rawlinson has termed the monotheistic party among the ancient Babylonians, and that the speech of Hea in lines 14 to 19 has been inserted by a poet who did not belong to it. The various deities of the popular faith are all resolved into the one supreme God, the maker of the world and man, who was worshipped at Babylon under the names of Bel, “the Lord,” and Merodach the sun-god, at Eridu under that of Hea and at Nipur under that of Anu. The gods of the multitude are said to be only the fifty names of the Creator. To him is ascribed the regulation of the stars, the naming of the angels, and the subjection of the subordinate demi-gods, and marginal notes expressly state that the several titles under which the Creator is addressed on the obverse of the tablets, all belong to one and the same divinity. In the popular mythology the part of the Creator was usually assigned to Merodach. Thus we find the latter deity addressed as follows in a mutilated bilingual hymn (K 2962 _Obv._):— 1. [King] of the land, lord of the world, 2. ... protector of heaven and earth, 3. firstborn of the god Hea, 4. the restorer of heaven and earth, 5. ... mighty lord of mankind, king of the world. 6. ... the god of gods, 7. (lord) of heaven and earth, who hast no equal, 8. companion of Anu and Bel, 9. the merciful one among the gods, 10. the merciful who raisest the dead to life, 11. Merodach, the king of heaven and earth, 12. the king of Babylon, the lord of Bit-Saggil, 13. the king of Bit-Zida, the lord of the mighty temple of life, 14. heaven and earth are thine, 15. the circuit of heaven and earth is thine, 16. the charm (to produce) life is thine, 17. the philtre of life is thine, 18. the Illustrious King, the mouth of the Abyss, is thine; 19. mankind, (even) the men with the black heads, 20. living creatures, as many as are called by a name, as exist in the land, 21. the four quarters of the world, as many as there are, 22. the angels of the hosts of heaven and earth, as many as there are, (are thine). In these references to the names of the living creatures made by the Creator at the beginning of the world, we are irresistibly reminded of the passage in Genesis ii. 19., where we read that “out of the ground God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”