"'Mu-sheri-ina-namari--rose from the foundations of heaven in a black
cloud;--Ramman thundered in the midst of the cloud,--and Nabon and
Sharru marched before;--they marched, devastating the mountain and the
plain;--Nergal the powerful dragged chastisements after him;--Adar
advanced, overthrowing;--before him;--the archangels of the abyss
brought destruction,--in their terrors they agitated the earth.--The
inundation of Ramman swelled up to the sky,--and [the earth] became
without lustre, was changed into a desert.

"'They broke . . . of the surface of the earth like . . . ;--[they
destroyed] the living beings of the surface of the earth.--The terrible
[Deluge] on men swelled up to [heaven].The brother no longer saw his
brother; men no longer knew each other. In heaven--the gods became
afraid of the water-spout, and--sought a refuge; they mounted up to the
heaven of Anu.--The gods were stretched out motionless, pressing one
against another like dogs.--Ishtar wailed like a child, the great
goddess pronounced her discourse:--"Here is humanity returned into mud,
and--this is the misfortune that I have announced in the presence of the
gods.--So I announced the misfortune in the presence of the gods,--for
the evil I announced the terrible [chastisement] of men who are mine.--I
am the mother who gave birth to men, and--like to the race of fishes,
there they are filling the sea;--and the gods, by reason of that--which
the archangels of the abyss are doing, weep with me."--The gods on their
seats were seated in tears,--and they held their lips closed,
[revolving] future things.

"'Six days and as many nights passed; the wind, the water-spout, and the
diluvian rain were in all their strength. At the approach of the seventh
day the diluvian rain grew weaker, the terrible water-spout-which had
assailed after the fashion of an earthquake--grew calm, the sea inclined