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Hamath Inscription (Hittite).

(Specially drawn by W. Harry Rylands, F.S.A.)

We know something of the religion of the Hittites from their invocation of the gods in their treaty with Rameses II. They adored the sun and moon, the mountains, rivers, clouds, and the sea. But their chief deity was Sutekh, “king of heaven, protector of this treaty,” supposed by Brugsch to be a form of Baal, but who is more likely to have been allied to Set or to Dagon. We cannot suppose that their worship was purer than that of the nations round about them; but it may not have been less pure, nor their life less moral. The appeal to the King of Heaven to protect a treaty is admirable so far as it goes. To what height they could sometimes rise in their conceptions of duty is pleasantly shown if, as seems possible, that beautiful passage in Micah vi. 8 is to be attributed to them—“What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” The prophet quotes the sentiment from Balaam, and gives it as Balaam’s answer to the question of Balak, king of Moab, who had sent for him to curse Israel. A conversation took place which may be set forth as follows:—