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no The throne-dais had not yet been built. Scepter and crown, royal headband and staff still lay in heaven before Anu. When finally, after the decisions regarding the four regions and the granting of civilizations and Kingship to Mankind were reached, "the scepter of Kingship was brought down from Heaven," Enlil assigned to the goddess Ishtar (his granddaughter) the task of finding a suitable candidate for the first throne in the City of Men—Kish, in Sumer. The Bible recalls Enid's change of heart and blessing of the remnants by stating that "Elohim blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them: Be fruitful and multiply and replen- ish the Earth." The Bible then, in what is called the Table of Nations (Genesis chapter 10), proceeds to list the tribal nations that have descended of the three sons of Noah— Shem, Ham, and Japhet—the three major groupings that we still recognize as the Semitic peoples of the Near East, the Hamitic peoples of Africa, and the Indo-Europeans of Ana- tolia and the Caucasus who had spread to Europe and India. Plunked into the list of sons and sons of sons and grandsons is an unexpected statement regarding the origins of Kingship and the name of the first king—Nimrod: And Kush begot Nimrod, he who was the first Mighty Man upon the Earth. He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh, wherefore the saying, "A Mighty Hunter like Nimrod before Yahweh." And the beginning of his kingdom: Babel and Erech and Akkad, all in the Land of Shine'ar. Out of that land there emanated Ashur, 1 ar 1 tom, where Nineveh was built, a city of wide streets; and Khalah, and Ressen—the great city which is between Nineveh and Khalah. DIVINE ENCOUNTERS This is an accurate, though concise, history of Kingship