THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH AN ENGLISH VERSION WITH AN INTRODUC.docx

THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
AN ENGLISH VERSION WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
N. K. Sandars
*
REVISED EDITION INCORPORATING
NEW MATERIAL
PENGUIN
CONTENTS
Map of the Ancient Orie"t
INTRODUCTION
1 The History of the Epic 7
2 Tht Discovery of the Tablt·ts 9
3 The Historical Background 13
4 The Literary Background 17
S The Hero of the Epic 20
6 The Principal Gods £?f the Bpic 23
7 The Story 30

44-8 Survival
9 The Diction the Epic 47
49 10 Remarks on this VerSiOtl
Acknowledgements 59
Prologue: GILGAMESH KING IN URUK 61
3 ISHT AR AND GILGAMESH, AND THE DEATH
6 THE RETURN II4
7 THE DEATH OF GILGAMESH u8
1 THE COMING OF ENKIDU 62
2 THE FOREST JOURNEY 70
OF ENKIDU 85
4 THE SEARCH FOR EVERLASTING LIFE 97
S THE STORY OF THE FLOOD 108
Glossary Names 120
Appendix: Sources 126
Penguin Books Ltd, Hannondsworth, Middlesex, England
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Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australi.
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 4I Steelcase Road West, Markham,
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Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10,
Ne'
This translation first published 1960
Reprinted 1962
Reprinted with revisions 1964
Reprinted I965, 1966, 1967. 1968, I970, 1971 (twice)
Reprinted with revisions 1972
Reprinted 1973, 1974, 1975
Copyright Cl N. K. Sandars, 1960, 196<4, 1972
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PERSIA
INTRODUCTION
1. The History ofthe Epic
THE Epic ofGilgamesh, the renowned king ofUruk in Meso-
potamia, comes from an age which had been wholly forgotten,
until in the last century archaeologists began uncovering the
buried cities of the Middle East. Till then the entire history of
the long period which separated Abraham from Noah was
contained in two of the most forbiddingly genealogical
chapters of the Book ofGenesis. From these chapters only two
names survived in common parlance, those of the hunter
Nimrud and the tower of Babel; but in the cycle of poelllS
which are collected round the character of Gilgamesh we are
carried back into the middle of that age.
These poems have a right to a place in the world's literature,
not only because they antedate Homeric epic by at least one and

a half thousand years, but mainly because of the quality and
character of the story that they tell. It is a mixture of pure
adventure, ofmorality, and oftragedy. Through the action we
are shown a very human concern with mortality, the search for
knowledge, and for an escape from the common lot of man.
The gods, who do not die, cannot be tragic. IfGilgamesh is not
the first human hero, he is the first tragic hero ofwhom any-
thing is known. He is at once the most sympathetic to us, and
most typical ofindividual man in his search for life and under-
standing, and of this search the conclusion must be tragic. It is
perhaps surprising that anything so old as a story of the third
millennium B.C. should still have power to move, and still
attract readers in the twentieth century A.D., and yet it does.
The narrative is incomplete and may remain so; nevertheless
it is today the finest surviving epic poem from any period until
the appearance ofHomer' s Iliad: and it is immeasurably older.
We have good evidence that most of the Gilgamesh poems
7

INTRODUCTION
were already written down in the first centuries of the secon
millennium B.C., and that they probably existed in much th
same form many centuries earlier, while the final recensior
and most complete edition, comes from the seventh centur
library of Assurbanipal, antiquary and last great king of th
Assyrian Empire. This Assurbanipal was a formidable genera
the plunderer of Egypt and Susa; but he was also thecoHector c
a notable library of contemporary historical records, and c
much older hymns, poems, and scientific and religious ten
He tells us that he sent out his servants to search the archives c
the ancient seats oflearning in Babylon, Uruk, and Nippur, an
to copy and translate into the contemporary Akkadian Semiti
those texts which were in the older Sumerian language c
Mesopotamia. Amongst these texts, 'Written downaccordin;
to the original and collated in the palace ofAssurbanipal,
ofthe World, King ofAssyria', was the poem which we call tb
Epic ofGilgamesh.

Not long after the completion of this task of collation tb
epic was virtually lost and the hero's name forgotten, or dis
guised and garbled out ofrecognition; until it was rediscovero
in the last century. This discovery was due, in the first place
to the curiosity of two Englishmen, and thereafter to tb
labours ofscholars in many different parts of the world, witt
have pieced together, copied, and translated the clay tablets 0]
which the poem is written. It is a work which continues, ant
more gaps are being filled ineach year; but the main body ofth
Assyrian Epic has not been altered in essentials since the monu
mental publications of text, transliteration, and
by Campbell Thompson in I928 and I930. More recently
however, a new stage has been reached and fresh interes
aroused by the work ofProfessor Samuel Kramer ofPennsyl
vania, whose collection and translation ofSumerian texts hav
carried the history of the Epic back into the third millenniuD
B.C. It is now possible to combine and compare a far larger ant
older body ofwritings than ever before.
S

INTRODUCTION
2. The Discovery of the Tablets
The discovery of the tablets belongs to the heroic age of
excavation in the lllid nineteenth century, vhen, although
methods were not always so scrupulous nor aitns so strictly
scientific as today, the difficulties and even dangers were
greater, and results had an ilnpact which profoundly altered the
intellectual perspective ofthe age. In 1839 a young Engtishlllan,
Austen Henry Layard, set off with a friend on an overland
journey to Ceylon; but in Mesopotamia he was delayed by a
reconnaissance of Assyrian mounds. The delay of weeks was
lengthened into years, but in time Nineveh and Nimrud were
excavated; and it was frolll these excavations that Layard
brought back to the British Museum a great part of the collec-
tion of Assyrian sculptures, along with thousands of broken
tablets frOlll the palace of Nineveh.
lhcn Layard began excavating at Nineveh he hoped to
find inscriptions, but the reality, a buried library and a lost

literature, was more than he could have expected. In fact the
extent and value ofthe discovery was not realized till later when
the clay tablets with wedge-shaped characters were deciphered.
SOllIC, inevitably, were lost; but over twenty-five thousand
broken tablets, a huge number, were brought back to the
British Museum. The work of decipherment vas begun by
Henry Rawlinson, at the residency in Baghdad, where he w'as
stationed as political agent. Before going to Baghdad, Rawlin-
son, then an army officer in the employ of the East India Cotn-
pany, had discovered what was to prove a principal key to the
decipherment ofcuneiform in the great inscription, the' Record
ofDarius " on the rock ofBe his tun near Kermanshah in Persia,
which is vritten with cuneiform (wedge-shaped) characters in
the Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian languages. The "'Turk
begun by Rawlinson in Baghdad was continued in the British
.l/luseum :"hen he returned to England in 1855; :1nd soon
after
his return he started pubHshing the Cuneiform Inscriptions of

9
INTRODUCTION
Western Asia. In 1866 he was joined, as an assistant in the work
on the tablets, by George Smith.
Meanwhile Rassam, Layard's collaborator and successor at
Nineveh, had excavated in 1853 that part of the library in
which were the tablets ofthe Assyrian collation ofthe Gilgamesh
Epic. A realization of the importance ofthe discovery did not
come till twenty years later, when in of 1872, at a
meeting of the newly founded Society ofBiblical Archaeology,
George Smith announced that'A short time back I discovered
among the Assyrian tablets in the British Museum an account
ofthe flood.' This was the eleventh tablet ofthe Assyrian recen-
sion of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Soon after this first announce-
ment Smith published the Chaldean Account ofthe Deluge, and
with it the outline of the Gilgamesh narrative. Interest was
immediate and widespread; but the Deluge tablet itself was
incomplete, so the search for more tablets was renewed. The

Daily Telegraph contributed 1,000 guineas towards further
excavation at Nineveh, which George Smith was to undertake
for the British Museum. Quite soon after his arrival at Nineveh,
Smith found the missing lines from the description ofthe flood,
which was then, as it still is today, the most complete and best
preserved part ofthe whole Epic. Many more tablets were found
in this and the following year, and Smith was able to fill in the
broad outline of the Assyrian version before, in 1876, he suc-
cumbed to sickness and hunger, and died near Aleppo at the age
of thirty-six; but already he had opened up a new field· in
Biblical studies and in ancient history.
When publishing the Assyrian' Deluge' Smith had stated that
this was evidently a copy from a much older version made at
Uruk, the biblical Erech, known today as Warka. Some years
earlier, between 1849 and 1852, W. K. Loftus, a member ofthe
Turko-Persian Frontier Commission, had spent two short
seasons digging at Warka, where he found puzzling renlains,
including what are now known to be third-millennium mosaic

walls, and also tablets. But Warka had to wait for further
10
INTRODUCTION
attention till the twenties and thirties ofthis century, when the
Germans carried out massive excavations which have revealed
a long series of buildings, as well as sculptures and tablets.
Thanks to this work a great deal is now known about early
Uruk, its temples, and the life of its inhabitants.
Even more important for the history of the Gilgamesh Epic
'were the activities of an American expedition from the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, led by John Punnet Peters, which at
the end of the nineteenth century started work on the mound
ofNiffar, ancient Nippur, in Southern Iraq. By this time con-
siderably more experience had been gained of the problems
connected with excavating ancient cities: but there were still
many hazards. The first season at Nippur in 1888-9 began
light-heartedly with the arrival of Peters and his party at the

site in a wild gallop through the canebrakes on rearing stallions;
but their last view of the mound at the end of the season was
of hostile Arabs performing a war-dance on the ruins of the
camp. Nevertheless the work continued the following year, and
a total of from thirty to forty thousand tablets was found
and distributed between museums in Philadelphia and Istanbul.
These tablets include a small group on which are found the
oldest versions of the Gilgamesh cycle in the Sumerian lan-
guage. Work proceeds in the field and among museum
archives. Recent additions have been made by the publication
oftablets from Ur in the British Museum, and tablets have been
identified in Baghdad and elsewhere, some historical, and some
directly connected with the text. Division of the material has
complicated the work of decipherment, for in some cases one
halfofan important tablet has been stored in America and the
other in Istanbul, and copies ofboth must be brought together
before the contents are understood.
The majority ofancient texts are commercial and administra-
tive documents, business archives, lists, and inventories

which though profoundly interesting to the historian, are not
for general reading. The recent decipherment of the so-called
II
INTRODUCTION
'linear B' scriptofBronze Age Mycenae and Crete has revealed
no literature. A huge library discovered at Kiiltepe in Central
Anatolia is entirely made up ofrecords ofbusiness transactions;
and apart from a solitary text, and that a curse, there is not one
of a literary kind. The importance of the excavations at
Nippur, Nineveh, and other great centres ofearly civilization
in Mesopotamia is that they have restored a literature of high
quality and of unique character.
The Gilgamesh Epic must have been widely known in the
second millennium B.C., for a version has been found in the
archives of the Hittite imperial capital at Boghazkoy in
Anatolia, written in Semitic Akkadian; and it was also transla-
ted into the Indo-European Hittite, and the Hurrian languages.

In southern Turkey parts have been found at Sultantepe;
while a small but important fragment from Megiddo in Pales-
tine points to the existence of a Canaanite or later Palestinian
version, and so to the possibility that early Biblical authors
were
familiar with the story. The Palestinian fragment comes from
the tablet which describes the death of Enkidu and is closest
to the accoUllt already known from Boghazkoy. Excavation at
Ras Shamra, ancient Ugarit, on the Syrian coast has brought to
life an independent epic literature ofwhich the written versions
mostly date from the later part of the second millennium, and
which was also known in the Hittite capital; it includes a
fragment from a flood narrative that probably stems from ,
version of the Gilgamesh flood. At this period therefore there
was considerable overlapping and some mingling ofthe: variou
literary traditions, including those of the Hittites themselves
and recently a case has been made out for the probable
existenCl
of a rather similar Aegean Mycenaean poetic tradition, ele

ments from which would have survived the dark age, anc
reappeared in Homeric and later Greek poetry. The whol
question of the date and nature of this Ulldoubted Asiati
element in Greek myth and early poetry is still debatable an
clouded with tmcertainty.
12
INTRODUCTION
Whether or not the fanlc ofGilg;ullcsh ofUruk had reached
the Aegean - and the idea is attractive - there can be no doubt
that it was as great as that of any later hero. In tinle his l1aIlle
became so Il1uch a household word that jokes and forgeries
were
fathered on to it, as in a popular fraud that survives on eighth-
ceutury B.C. tablets which perhaps theillselves copy an older
text. This is a letter supposed to be written by Gilgamesh to
sonle other king, with coml11ands that he should send improb-
able quantities of livestock and Inetals, along with gold and

precious stones for an amulet for Enkidu, which would -veigh
no less than thirty pounds. The joke l1lust have been well
received, for it survives in four copies, all from Sultantepe.
The text has been translated and published recently by Dr
Oliver Guoley.
3. The Historical Background
The excavation ofsites and deciphernlent of texts has taught us
a great deal about the historical and the literary background of
the Epic. Although only the last version, that ofAssurbanipal' s
library, has survived as a relatively complete work, it appears
that all the most important elements of the story existed as
separate poems in the older Sumerian literature, and may have
been, indeed probably were, composed and recited long be-
fore they were written down. While no element of the story
can be later than the destruction of Nineveh in the seventh
century, a recurring situation typical ofthe third millennium is
discernible behind much of the action, and probably provided
its context. Behind this again the tradition reaches back into a

prcliterate age on the borderline of legend and history, a little
later than the Deluge, when gods were replaced by mortals on
the thrones of the city-states. This was the age of the Archaic
Sumerian civilization.
The Sumerians were the first literate inhabitants of Meso-
potanlia, and theirs is the language of the oldest tablets from
13
INTRODUCTION
Nippur which relate to Gilgamesh. They had already irrigated
the country and filled it with their cities, before it was
conquered
by Semitic tribes in the course of the third millennium. They
were themselves probably conquerors from the north and
east, who arrived during the fourth millennium. The influ.ence
of this gifted people, shown in laws, language, and ideas, per-
sisted long after they had been conquered by their Semite
neighbours. It has been justly likened to the influence ofRome
on medieval Europe. Their language was still 'written, like

the Latin ofthe Middle Ages, centuries after they had lost their
political identity. It is therefore no anachronism to find the
early Gilgamesh texts still written in this 'learned' language,
although most of them date from the beginning of the second
millennium, after the Semitic conquest.
Excavation has shown that the Archaic Sumerian or Early
Dynastic civilization of the early third millennium follows
notable flood levels at several important sites: Shurrupak, Kish,
and Uruk among them. These levels close the last prehistoric
period, theJemdet Nasr Period ofthe archaeologists; but there
is no proof of their being strictly contemporary. An earlier
disaster, identified by Sir Leonard Woolley at Ur, was ofonly
local extent, and archaeological evidence does not support any
single overwhelming catastrophe; nor was a disastrous flood
among the earliest of ancient Sumerian traditions. In later
Sumerian, as in Old Babylonian writings, flood and deluge are
sent by the gods, along with equally catastrophic visitations
ofplague, drought and famine. Five cities are named as existing

before the Deluge, and to them 'Kingship was let down from
Heaven'. After the catastrophe 'Kingship once more des-
cended', and the city-states which then arose were often at war
with one another. The senu-historical 'Sumerian King-List',
composed at the beginning of the second millennium, shows
Kish as the first city to gain pre-eminence; but after a time U
ruk
defeated Kish and took away this supremacy. These two states
were traditional rivals. In the King-List Gilgamesh is named as
14
INTRODUCTION
fifth ruler of the first post-diluvian dynasty of Uruk (see
below).
Because oftheir wealth the cities were great prizes, tempting
to the wild Semitic tribes of Arabia, and to the warlike people
ofElam to the east, and ofthe Persian highlands. Not long after
the fall of the dynasty of Uruk, when the Semites had estab-

lished themselves at Agade in the north, Sargon, their king,
claimed that he had a standing army of5,400 soldiers. Amongst
the chief ofhis exploits was the destruction ofthe walls ofUruk.
These had been a by-word. Men said 'Uruk of the strong
walls', and Gilgamesh was traditionally the great builder.
In the Sumerian Early Dynastic age each city already had its
temples of the gods. They were magnificent buildings decor-
ated with reliefs and mosaics, and usually comprising a great
court and an inner sanctuary, with sometimes, as at Uruk, a
ziggurat behind. This was a holy mountain in miniature: an
antechamber between heaven and earth where the gods could
converse with men. So when Gilgamesh calls on the goddess
Ninsun, his divine mother, she goes up to the roof of the
temple to offer prayer and sacrifice to the great Sun God. The
temples were served by a perpetual priesthood, in whose
hands, at one time, was almost the whole wealth of the state,
and amongst whom were the archivists and teachers, the
scholars and mathematicians. In very early times the whole

temporal power was theirs, as servants ofthe god whose estates
they managed. Later a single individual became' tenant-farmer'
and caretaker, till' Kingship from Heaven', pow'er
_was secularized, and the royal dynasties, competitive and
aggressive in aspect, arose in tum. The prestige of the temples
remained, however, great.
One of the causes of the militarism of the third millennium
was economic. The southern part ofMesopotamia as far as the
Persian Gulf was, and is, a flat hot land of marsh and plain,
very productive when drained, but, apart from the date-palm,
altogether without timber and without metals. The demands
IS
5
THE STORY OF THE FLOOD
'y0 u know the city Shurrupak, it stands on the banks of
Euphrates? That city grew old and the gods that were in
it were old. There was Anu, lord of the firmament, their

father, and warrior Enlil their counsellor, Ninurta the
helper, and Ennugi watcher over canals; and with them
also was Ea. In those days
multiplied, the .. the
greatgo-cr-was'aroused by the clamour .. the
<?tmankind is is no
the
mankind. Enlil did this, bUtEi'because orllls oath wamea ,
""_4______- __."'__ ___ _ .." ____________ ___........... .'-"__
h .....
me in a dream. .. tQ__l!!Y-t.!9us£.of !
reed-house! Wall! 0 hearken
reed-house, of 1
Ubara-Tutu; teii'-dowU' your house and.E!1ild boat, /
abanaoli- nossesSiOns-ancr'IOOk-tor w9.ddly i•
_______,L,_________________ __._ ,- - ... -"'. .....
goods and save your soul alive. Tear'-down your house, I
sa'i;-am±--bniktaooaE-thesearE'tne measurements'of the
build her: let her beam equal her
length, let her deck be roofed like the vault that covers
the abyss; then take up into the boat the seed of all living
creatures."

'When I had understood I said to my lord, "Behold,
what you have cOllunanded I will honour and perform,
108
THB STORY OP THE FLOOD
but how shall I answer the people, the city, the elders?"
Then Ea opened his mouth and said to me, his servant,
"Tell them this: I have learnt that Enlil is wrathful
against me, I dare no longer walk in his land nor live in
his city; I will go down to the Gulf to dwell with Ea
my lord. But on you he will rain down abundance,
rare fish and shy wild-fowl, a rich harvest-tide. In the
evening the rider of the storm will bring you wheat in
torrents."
'In the first light of dawn all my household gathered
round me, the children brought pitch and the men what-
ever vas necessary. On the fifth day I laid the keel and the
ribs, then I made fast the planking', The ground-space was

one acre, each side of the deck measured one hundred and
twenty cubits, making a square. I built six decks below,
seven in all, I divided them into nine sections with bulk-
heads between. I drove in wedges where needed, I saw to
the punt-poles, and laid in supplies. The carriers brought
oil in baskets, I poured pitch into the furnace and asphalt
and oil; more oil was consumed in caulking, and more
again the master of the boat took into his stores. I slaugh-
tered bullocks for the people and every day I killed sheep.
I gave the shipwrights wine to drink as though it were
river water, raw wine and red wine and oil and white
wine. There was feasting then as there is at the time of the
New Year's festival; I luyself anointed my head. On the
seventh day the boat was complete.
'Then was the launching full of difficulty; there was
shifting of ballast above and below till two thirds w'as
submerged. I loaded into her all that I had of gold and of
living things, my family, my kin, the beast of the field

both wild and tame, and all the craftsfllen. I sent them on
Iog
board, for the time that Shamash had ordained was already
ful£lled when he said, "In the evening, when the rider of
the storm sends down the destroying rain, enter the boat
and batten her down." The time was fulfilled, the evening
came, the rider of the storm sent down the rain. I looked
out at the weather and it was terrible, so I too boarded
the boat and battened her down. All was now complete,
the battening and the caulking; so I handed the tiller to
Puzur-Amurri the steersman, with the navigation and the
care of the whole boat.
'With the frrst light of dawn a black cloud came from
the horizon; it thundered within where Adad, lord of the
storm was riding. In front over hill and plain Shullat and
Hanish, heralds of the storm, led on. Then the gods ofthe

abyss rose up; Nergal pulled out the dams of the nether
waters, Ninurta the war-lord threw down the dykes, and
the seven judges ofhell, the Annunaki, raised their torches,
lighting the land with their livid flame. A stupor ofdespair
went up to heaven when the god of the storm turned
daylight to darkness, when he smashed the 14nd like a cup.
One whole day the tempest raged, gathering fury as it
went, it poured over the people like the tides of battle; a
man could not see his brother nor the people be seen from
heaven. Even the gods were terrified at the flood, they
fled to the highest heaven, the firmament of Anu; they
crouched against the walls, cowering like curs. Then Ishtar
the sweet-voiced Queen ofHeaven cried out like a woman
in travail: "Alas the days ofold are turned to dust because
I commanded evil; why did I command this evil in the
council ofall the gods? I commanded wars to destroy the
people, but are they not my people, for I brought theln
forth? Now like the spawn offish they float in the ocean."

110
THB STORY OF THB FLOOD
The great gods of heaven and of hell wept, they covered
their mouths.
'tor six days al:!9. six nights the windl blew, torrent and '
the, (
warrIng ..
day fio!!l_tIie sQuth sea
to .clay siinaceofthe sea as flat as a roof-top;
I opened a hatch and the light fell on my face. Then I bowed
low, I sat down and I wept, the tears streamed down my
face, for on every side was the waste of water. I looked
for land in vain, but fourteen leagues distant there appeared
a mountain, and there the boat grounded; on the mountain
ofNisir the boat held fast, she held fast and did not budge.
One day she held, and a second day on the mountain of
Nisir she held fast and did not budge. A third day, and a
fourth day she held fast on the mountain and did not

budge; a fifth day and a sixth day she held fast on the
mountain. the a qove
and let her go. She flew away, q.t1.t finding,l1<?
Then I loose4 a swallow, and she flew away
but .. .
she saw that the waters had retreated; she ate, she flew
.- l
!
___.______ -'-
around, she and she did not come back. Then I
to-'iIleIour -winds, I.-maae a
out a liEatioliOiitIle J!!.ountain top. I
Seven:-and again seven I stands, I
wood and and.my£t1e. When
.flies
Then, at last, Ishtar also came, she lifted
her necklace with the jewels ofheaven that once Anu had
III

made to please her. "0 you gods here present, by the
lapis lazuli rotll1d my neck I shall remember these days as
I remember the jewels ofmy throat; these last days I shall
not forget. Let all the gods gather round the sacrifice,
except Enlil. He shall not approach this offering, for
without reflection he brought the flood; he consigned my
people to destruction."
'When EnHl had COOle, when he saw the boat, he was
wrath and swelled with anger at the gods, the host of
heaven, "Has any of these mortals escaped? Not one 'was
to have survived the destruction." Then the god of the
wells and canals Ninurta opened his mouth and said to the
warrior Enlil, "Who is there of the gods that can devise
without Ea? It is Ea alone who knows all things." Then
Ea opened his tnouth and spoke to warrior Enlil, "Wisest
of gods, hero Enlil, how could you so senselessly bring
down the flood?

Lay upon the sinner his sin,
Lay upon the transgressor his transgression,
Punish him a little when he breaks loose,
Do not drive him too hard or he perishes;
Would that a lion had ravaged mankind
Rather than the jlood,
that a wolf had ravaged mankind
Rather than the jlood,
TVordd that famine had wasted the world
Rather than the flood,
vVould that pestilence had wasted mankind
Rather than the flood. -
It was not I that revealed the secret of the gods; the 'wise
II2
THE STORY OF THE FLOOD
man learned it in a dream. Now take your cOWlsel what
shall be done with him."
'Then Enlil went up into the boat, he took me by the

hand and my wife and made us enter the boat and kneel
down on either side, he standing between us. He touched
our foreheads to bless us saying, "In time past Utnapishtim
was a mortal man; henceforth he and his wife shall live
in the distance at the mouth ofthe rivers." Thus it was that
the gods took me and placed me here to live in the distance,
at the mouth of the rivers.'
113
A New Translation of
THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
According to the Traditional Hebrew Text
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Philadelphia • Jerusalem
/
TORAH

NEVI'IM
KETHUVIM
TORAH GENESIS 5.20
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!
!
of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and begot sons and daughters.
20All the
davs of Jared came to 962 years; then he died.
2lWhen Enoch had lived 65 years, he begot Methuselah. 22After
the
birth of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years; and he
begot
sons and daughters. 23All the days of Enoch came to 365 years.
24Enoch
walked with God; then he was no more, for God took him.
2sWhen Methuselah had lived 187 years, he begot Lamech.
26After the
birth of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and begot sons and

daugh-
ters. 27All the days of Methuselah came to 969 years; then he
died.
28When Lamech had lived 182 years, he begot a son. 29And he
named
him Noah, saying, "This one will provide us relicia from our
work and
from the toil of our hands, out of the very soH which the LORD
placed
under a curse." 30Mter the birth of Noah, Lamech lived 595
years and
begot sons and daughters. 3lAlI the days of Lamech came to 777
years;
then he died.
32When Noah had lived 500 years, Noah begot Shem, Ham, and
Ja-
pheth.
6 Vhen men began to increase on earth and daughters were
born to
them, 2the divine beingsa saw how beautiful the daughters of
men were
and took wives from among those that pleased them.-3The
LORD said,
"My breath shall not abideb in man forever, since he too is

flesh; let the
days allowed him be one hundred and twenty years."_4It was
then, and
later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth-when the divine
beings
cohabited with the daughters of men, who bore them offspring.
They
were the heroes of old, the men of renown.
sThe LORD saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and
how
every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the
time. 6And
the LORD regretted that He had made man on earth, and His
heart was
saddened. 7The LORD said, "I will blot out from the earth the
men whom
I created-men together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of
the
sky; for I regret that I made them." 8But Noah found favor with
the
LORD.
, Noah with Heb. "to comjort'>; if 9.20 ff
, Others "thl: sorlS of God. "

t> ,Humi,lft ofHl:b. uncertain.
10
TORAH GENESIS 7.6
nl
9This is the line ofNoah.-Noah was a righteous man; he was
blameless
in his age; Noah walked with God.-lONoah begot three sons:
Shem,
Ham, and Japheth.
lIThe earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled
with law-
lessness. 12When God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all
flesh had
corrupted its ways on earth, 13God said to Noah, "1 have
decided to put
an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness
because of them:
I am about to destroy them with the earth. 14Make yourself an
ark of
gopher wood; make it an ark with compartments, and cover it
inside and

out with pitch. 15This is how you shall make it: the length of
the ark shall
be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height
thirty cubits.
16Make an opening for daylight in the ark, and C-terminate it
within a
i cubit of the top. -c Put the entrance to the ark in its side;
make it with
I bottom, second, and third decks ..
i
I
17"For My part, I am about to bring the Flood-·waters upon the
earth-to destroy all flesh under the sky in which there is breath
of life;
everything on earth shall perish. 18But I will establish My
covc:nant with
you, and you shall enter the ark, with your· sons, your wife,
and your
sons' wives. 19And of all that lives, of all flesh, you shall take
two of each
into the ark to keep alive with you; they shall be male and
female. 20From
I birds of every kind, cattle of every kind, every kind
ofcreeping thing on

earth, two of each shall come to you to stay alive. 21 For your
part, take
of everything that is eaten and store it away, to serve as food
for you and
tor them." 22Noah did so; just as God commanded him, so he
did.
t
7Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, with all your
house-
hold, for you alone have I found righteous before Me in this
generation.
20f every clean animal you shall take seven pairs, males and
their mates,
and of every animal that is not clean, two, a male and its mate;
30f the
birds of the sky also, seven pairs, male and female, to keep seed
alive upon
all the earth. 4 For in seven days' time I will make it rain· upon
the earth,
forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out from the earth all
existence
that I created." 5 And Noah did just as the LORD commanded
him.
6Noah was six hundred years old when the Flood came, waters
upon

" Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
I
11
TORAH GENESIS 7.7
the earth. 7Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives,
went into
the ark because of the waters of the Flood. sOf the clean
animals, of the
animals that are not clean, of the birds, and of everything that
creeps on
the ground, 9tVO of each, male and female, came to Noah into
the ark,
as God had commanded Noah. IOAnd on the seventh day the
waters of
the Flood came upon the earth.
II In the SLX hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second
month, on the
seventeenth day of the month, on that day
All the fountains of the great deep burst apart,
And the floodgates of the sky broke open.

(12The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.)
13That same
day Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, went into
the ark,
with Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons-14they and all
beasts
of every kind, all cattle of every kind, all creatures of every
kind that creep
on the earth, and all birds of every kind, every bird, every
winged thing.
15They came to Noah into the ark, two each of all flesh in
which there
was breath of life. 16Thus they that entered comprised male and
female
of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut
him in.
17The Flood continued forty days on the earth, and the waters
increased
and raised the ark so that it rose above the earth. ISThe waters
swelled
and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark drifted upon
the waters.
19When the waters had swelled much more upon the earth, all
the highest

mountains everywhere under the sky were covered. 20Fifteen
cubits higher
did the waters swell, as the mountains were covered. 21And all
flesh that
stirred on earth perished-birds, cattle, beasts, and all the things
that
swarmed upon the earth, and all mankind. 22All in vhose
nostrils was the
merest breath of life, all that was on dry land, died. 23All
existence on
earth was blotted out-man, cattle, creeping things, and birds of
the sky;
they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left:: and
those with
him in the ark.
24And when the waters had swelled on the earth one hundred
and fifty
8
days, IGod remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the
cattle that
were with him in the ark, and God caused a wind to blow across
the
earth, and the waters subsided. 2The fountains of the deep and
the flood-

gates of the sky were stopped up, and the rain from the sky was
held
back; 3the waters then receded steadily from the earth. At the
end of one
hundred and fifty days the waters diminished, 4S0 that in the
seventh
J •
l2
TORAH GENESIS 8.22
month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to
rest on the
mountains of Ararat. 5The waters went on diminishing until the
tenth
month; in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of
the
mountains became visible.
6At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark
that he
had made 7 and sent out the raven; it went to and fro until the
waters had
dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out the dove to see
whether the

waters had decreased from the surface of the ground. 9But the
dove could
not find a resting place tor its toot, and returned to him to the
ark, tor
there was water over all the earth. So putting out his hand, he
took it
into the ark with him. IOHe waited another seven days, and
again sent
out the dove from the ark. lIThe dove came back to him toward
evening,
and there in its bill was a plucked-otr olive leaf! Then Noah
knew that
the waters had decreased on the earth. 12He waited still another
seven
days and sent the dove forth; and it did not return to him any
more.
13In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the
first of
the month, the waters began to dry from the earth; and when
Noah
removed the covering of the ark, he saw that the surface of the
ground
was drying. 14And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh
day of

the month, the earth was dry.
15God spoke to Noah, saying, 16"Come out of the ark, togeth(:r
with
your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives. 17Bring out with
you every
living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds, animals, and
everything
that creeps on earth; and let them swarm on the earth and be
tertile and
increase on earth." 18S0 Noah came out, together with his sons,
his wite,
and his sons' wives. 19Every animal, every creeping thing, and
every bird,
everything that stirs on earth came out of the ark by families.
20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking of every
clean
animal and of every clean bird, he ot}ered burnt otlerings on the
altar.
21The LORD smelled the pleasing odor, and the LORD said to
Himself:
"Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the
devisings
of man's mind are evil from his youth; nor will I ever again
destroy every

living being, as I have done.
22S0 long as the earth endures,
Seedtimc and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Summer and wintcr,
Day and night
Shall not o:ase."
13
TORAH GENESIS 9.1
9 God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Be tertile
and
increase, and fill the earth. 2The fear and the dread of you shall
be upon
all the beasts of the earth and upon all the birds of the sky-
everything
with which the earth is astir-and upon all the fish of the sea;
they are
given into your hand. 3Every creature that lives shall be yours
to eat; as
with the green grasses, I give you all these. 4You must not,

however, eat
flesh with its life-blood in it. 5But for your own life-blood I
will require
a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I
require a
reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow
man!
6Whoever sheds the blood of man,
By man shall his blood be shed;
For in His image
Did God make man.
7Be fertile, then, and increase; abound on the earth and increase
on it."
8And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9"1 now
establish
My covenant with you and your offspring to come, lOand with
every living
thing that is with you-birds, cattle, and every wild beast,as
well-all that
have come out of the ark, every living thing on earth. 11 I will
maintain
My covenant with you: never again shall all flesh be cut off by
the waters

of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the
earth."
12God further said, "This is the sign that I set for the covenant
between
Me and you, and every living creature with you, for all ages to
come. 131
have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall serve as a sign of
the covenant
between Me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the
earth, and the
bow appears in the clouds, 151 will remember My covenant
between Me
and you and every living creature among all flesh, so that the
waters shall
never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the
bow is in the
clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant
between God
and all living creatures, all flesh that is on earth. 17That," God
said to
Noah, "shall be the sign of the covenant that I have established
between
Me and all flesh that is on earth."

18The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham,
and
Japheth-Ham being the father of Canaan. 19These three were
the sons
of Noah, and from these the whole world branched out.
20Noah, the tiller of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard.
21 He
drank of the wine and became drunk, and he uncovered himself
within
14
TORAH GENESIS 10.12
his tent. 22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's
nakedness and told
his two brothers outside. 23But Shem and Japheth took a cloth,
placed it
against both their backs and, walking backward, they covered
their father's
nakedness; their faces were turned the other way, so that they
did not see
their father's nakedness. 24When Noah woke up from his wine
and learned
what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said,

"Cursed be Canaan;
The lowest of slaves
Shall he be to his brothers."
26And he said,
!,
I
"Blessed be the LORD,
I The God of Shem;
I Let Canaan be a slave to them.
j
27May God enlargea Japheth,,i And let him dwell in the tents of
Shem;
And let Canaan be a slave to
28Noah lived after the Flood 350 years. 29And all the days of
Noah
came to 950 years; then he died.
1/
J
10 These are the lines of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of
Noah:
sons were born to them after the Flood.
2The descendants of Japheth:. Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan,
Tubal,

Meshech, and Tiras. me descendants of Gomer: Ashkenaz,
Riphath, and
Togarmah. 4The descendants of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish,
the Kittim
and the Dodanim.a 5From these the maritime nations branched
out. [These
are the descendants ofJapheth]b by their lands-each with its
language-
their clans and their nations.
6The descendants of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
7The
descendants of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and
Sabteca. The
descendants of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
8Cush also begot Nimrod, who was the first man of might on
earth.
9He was a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD; hence the
saying,
"Like Nimrod a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD."
lO'fhe main-
stays of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh'
in the
land of Shinar. llFrom that land Asshur went forth and built
Nineveh,

Rehoboth-ir, Calah, 12and Resen between Nineveh and Calah,
that is the
great city.
• Heb. yapht, play on Heb. yepheth "Japheth."
• Septuagint and 1 Cbron. 1.7 "Rodanim.))
b Cf vv. 20 and 31.
< Heb. we-khalneh, better vocalized we-khuUanah "all of them
being")
15
Readings:
1. The Heritage of World Civilizations - Chapter 1 pages 7-23
& Chapter 2 pages 56-61.
2. Selection from the Epic of Gilgamesh * e-reserve
3. Selection from the Book of Genesis “Story of the Flood *
Directions:
1. Now that we have spent a few classes discussing Ancient
Egypt, I would like to get a sense as to what you think of this
magnificent early civilization. After going over the PowerPoints
and reading the textbook material, in what ways does the
ancient Egyptian civilization compare to others of the ancient
Near East, in terms of political systems, religious concepts
(meaning what deities or how they worship), and views of the
Afterlife? What, for you personally, is the most significant
contribution that the ancient Egyptians make on the history of
the Near East?
Readings:
1. The Heritage of World Civilizations - Chapter 3 pages 74-
112 & Chapter 6 pages 179-198

2. Herodotus – “Battle of Thermopylae” *e-res
3. Suetonius – “Death of Caesar” *e-res
Directions:
2. How does Herodotus depict the Spartans in this section? Can
you get a feel for the way Herodotus depicts the Persians? Is
there a significant contrast here? Without a doubt Herodotus is
attempting to present an accurate account of the battle, but is
there another agenda as well being presented? What would you
say is the overarching theme of this particular section?
Directions:
3. In reading the PDF of the Roman historian Suetonius, please
answer the following questions: Why, knowing what you now
understand about Roman politics from your textbook sections
and Powerpt shows, was Julius Caesar assassinated? In your
opinion is this an act of criminal murder or liberation of the
Republic? Was Caesar a tyrant or a savior of the Republic? How
did the Roman common masses react to Caesar's assassination?

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