¹ B.F. BATTO, "The Sleeping God: An Ancient Near Eastern Motif of Divine Sovereignty", Bib 68 (1987) 153-177.

² H. JACOBSON, "Elijah’s Sleeping Baal", Bib 79 (1998) 413.

³ Cf. J. SCHÜPPHAUS, "N#$y, ja4s$en", TWAT III, 1033-1034.

⁴ SCHÜPPHAUS, "N#$y, ja4s$en", 1033.

⁵ See H.-J. KRAUS, Die Psalmen I, (BKAT XV/1; Neukirchen 1960) 329.

⁶ Cf. A. WEISER, The Psalms (OTL; Philadelphia 1962) 359: "the members of the cult community have now gradually drawn near even to the God who hides his face so that it looks as if he is asleep or has forgotten his people".

⁷ M. DAHOOD, Psalms 1–50 (AB 16; Garden City 1965) 268: "The sleep of God, who really does not and cannot sleep (Ps cxxi 4), simply means that by remaining inattentive to the prayers of his people he gives the impression of being asleep".

⁸ Cf. WEISER, The Psalms, 542: "a very daring picture" — "a strong man, intoxicated by wine, arises from sleep".

⁹ BATTO, "The Sleeping God", 167, 171-172.

¹⁰ See G. WIDENGREN, Sakrales Königtum im Alten Testament und Judentum (Stuttgart 1955) 62-79; id., "Early Hebrew myths and their interpretation", Myth, ritual, and kingship (ed. S.H. HOOKE) (Oxford 1958) 142-203; esp. 191; BATTO, "The Sleeping God", 153-177; JACOBSON, "Elijah’s Sleeping Baal", 413.

¹¹ The most recent translation of Atrahasis appears in B.R. FOSTER, Before the Muses. An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. Vol. I (Bethesda, MD 1993) 158-201. Atrahasis includes both the topos of the god who wishes to sleep but cannot, as well as that of the god who must be awakened. By Atrahasis I we mean the topos of the god who wants to sleep but cannot. By Atrahasis II we mean the god who sleeps and must be awakened. There is also a very fragmentary text in which the surviving words Enlil – noise – destroy indicate a parallel to Atrahasis I; cf. the critical edition by W.G. LAMBERT, "A new Fragment from a List of antediluvian Kings and Marduk’s chariot", Symbolae Biblicae et Mesopotamicae dedicatae Francisco Mario Theodoro de Liagre Böhl (eds. M.A. BEEK – A.A. KAMPMAN – C. NIJLAND – J. RYCKMANS) (Leiden 1973) 271-275, 280. For a tentative reconstruction of this text see T. JACOBSEN, "The Eridu Genesis" JBL 100 (1981) 513-529, esp. 514 n.4, 519-520 n.10. Unfortunately Jacobsen does not cite Lambert’s article.

¹² The most recent translation, with bibliography, of Enuma Elish appears in B.R. FOSTER, Before the Muses. An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. Vol. I (Bethesda, MD 1993) 351-402.

¹³ FOSTER, Before the Muses, vol I, 168-169 = tablet I, 352-359. This same text, repeated on 171 = tablet II, 1-8.

¹⁴ FOSTER, Before the Muses, 355 I, 37-40. Batto has already cited these two passages, "The Sleeping God", 159 (Atrahasis) and 161 (Enuma Elish). We repeat these citations for the convenience of the reader but according to Foster’s translation.

¹⁵ FOSTER, Before the Muses, 161; I,78-83.

¹⁶ See R. BORGER, "Einige Texte religiösen Inhalts", Or 54 (1985) 18-20.

¹⁷ This parallelism between Atrahasis II and Enki and Ninmah was already noted by W.G. LAMBERT "The Relationship of Sumerian and Babylonian Myth as seen in Accounts of Creation", La circulation des biens, des personnes et des idées dans le Proche-Orient Ancien. Actes de la XXXVIIIe Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Paris, 8-10 juillet 1991 (eds. D. CHARPIN – F. JOANNÈS) (RAI 38; Recherche sur les Civilisations; Paris 1992) 130.

¹⁸ For a preliminary edition of this very difficult poem see C.A. BENITO, ‘Enki and Ninmah’ and ‘Enki and the World Order (A Dissertation in Oriental Studies. University of Pennsylvania, 1969; facsimile Ann Arbor 1977) 9-76; esp. 34-44. A more recent edition is that of H. SAUREN, "Nammu and Enki", The tablet and the scroll: Near Eastern studies in honor of William W. Hallo (ed. M.E. COHEN et al.) (Bethesda, MD 1993) 198-208. For lines 17-24 of the poem see the very important study by W.G. LAMBERT "The Relationship of Sumerian and Babylonian Myth", 129-135, where he analyzes lines 17-37. For recent translations of the poem see T. JACOBSEN, The Harps that once... Sumerian Poetry in Translation (New Haven – London 1987) 151-166; S. N. KRAMER – J. MAIER, Myths of Enki, the Crafty God (New York – Oxford 1989) 31-37.

¹⁹ Our translation follows the text established by Benito for lines 8-16 and by Lambert for lines 17-24.