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194 having been forsaken by his god, "cut off" by his protective goddess, abandoned by his friends. He loses his house, his possessions, and—worst of all—his health. He wonders Why?, hires diviners and "interpreters of dreams" to find out the reasons for his sufferings, calls upon exorcists to "appease the divine wrath." But nothing seems to work or help. "I am perplexed at these things," he writes. Debilitated, coughing, limp, with terrible headaches, he is ready to die; but as he reaches the depths of misery and desperation, salva- tion comes in a series of dreams. In the first dream he sees "a remarkable young man of outstanding physique, splendid in body, clothed in new gar- ments." As he awakens, he catches a glimpse of this appari- tion, actually sees the young man "clothed in splendor, robed in awesomeness." The action or speech that takes place in the course of this dream come true are lost by damage to the tablet. In the second dream a "remarkable Washed One" ap- peared, "holding in his hand a piece of purifying tamarisk wood." The apparition recited "life-restoring incantations" and poured "purifying waters" over the diseased sufferer. The third dream was even more remarkable, for it con- tained a dream within a dream. "A remarkable young woman of shining countenance," a goddess by all counts, appeared. She spoke to the Babylonian "Job" of deliverance. "Fear not," she said, "I will ... in a dream deliver you from your wretched state." And so, in his dream, the sufferer dreamed that he was seeing in a dream ' 'a bearded young man wearing a head-covering, an exorcist": He was carrying a tablet. "Marduk has sent me," [he said]. "To Shubshi, the Righteous Dweller, from Marduk's pure hands Lhave brought thee wellbeing." When he awakens, Shubshi finds the tablet that appeared to him in the dream within a dream actually in his possession. The boundary that is the Twilight Zone has been crossed, the metaphysical has become physical. There is cuneiform writ- DIVINE ENCOUNTERS