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With the tendency so characteristic of the Babylonian religion for great gods to absorb the rôles of minor ones, Nergal became the god of war par excellence, while Dibbarra, Ishum, and Sibi were chiefly viewed as powers responsible for such forms of violence as pestilence and distress.
The ra is either a phonetic complement to the ideograph or is perhaps added to suggest to the reader the identification with Gir-ra. Namely, the connection with Hebrew deber, 'pestilence. Cf. Harper, ib. p. 426. Babylon. Text obscure. "Sharpen badly" seems to be the idiomatic phrase used. See above, p. 154. See p. 475. A solar deity. See p. 99. Ishum. See above, p. 501. I.e., seven.
Kill the young and old alike, The tender suckling likewise spare no one. The treasures of Babylon carry off as booty. Ishum continues his narrative: The royal host was gathered together and entered the city. The bow was strung, the sword unsheathed. Their blood thou caused to flow like torrents of water through the city's highways.
The epithet 'servant' belongs to the period when the god took his place in the theological system as one of the attendants of the great Nergal, just as the plague-god is himself accompanied by a god Ishum, who acts as a kind of messenger or attendant to him.
Her opposition, however, is as powerless to stem Dibbarra's attack as was Marduk's grief at the onslaught on Babylon. Dibbarra's greed is insatiable. Ishum continues his address to him: O warrior Dibbarra, thou dost dispatch the just, Thou dost dispatch the unjust, Who sins against thee, thou dost dispatch, And the one who does not sin against thee thou dost dispatch.
Of these, the first two are directly identified with Nergal in the systematized pantheon , while Ishum is closely associated with Nergal, or appears as the attendant of Dibbarra . These gods, symbolizing violent destruction through war and fire, are evidently related to the Nergal of the upper world, to Nergal, the solar deity; but in the later stages of the religion, the Nergal of the lower world almost completely sets aside the earlier conception.
The longest of these contains an address to Dibbarra by his faithful attendant Ishum, in which the power of the war-god is praised and some of his deeds recounted. In a net thou didst catch them, enclose them, and destroy them, O! Warrior Dibbara, Leaving the city, thou didst pass to the outside, Taking on the form of a lion, thou didst enter the palace.
He is a solar deity identified in the theological system of the Babylonians with Nergal, but originally distinct and in all probability one of the numerous local solar deities of Babylonia like Nin-girsu and Nin-gishzida, Ishum and others, whose rôles are absorbed by one or the other of the four great solar deities, Shamash, Marduk, Ninib, and Nergal.
Dibbarra gives his consent to Ishum's plan: Go, Ishum, carry out the word thou hast spoken in accordance with thy desire. Ishum proceeds to do so. The mountain Khi-khi is the first to be attacked. Ishum directed his countenance to the mountain Khi-khi. The god Sibi, a warrior without rival, Stormed behind him. The warrior arrived at the mountain Khi-khi. He raised his hand, destroyed the mountain.
The continuation of the narrative is lost, all but a small fragment, which tells of the destruction of a city otherwise unknown called Inmarmaru. At the instigation of Dibbarra, Ishum enters this city and destroys it. The outrages committed are described at some length. Ea, the god of humanity, hears of the havoc wrought.
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