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235 texts that reflect that conviction is called by scholars The Plague Prayers of Mursilis, a Hittite king who reigned from 1334 to 1306 B.c. As confirmed by historical records, a plague had afflicted the land decimating the population; and Mursilis could not figure out what had angered the gods. He himself had been pious and deeply religious, "celebrated all the festivals, never preferred one temple for another." So what was wrong? In desperation, he included the following words in his prayer: Hearken to me, ye gods, my lords! Drive ye forth the plague from the Hittite land! Let the reason for which the people are dying be established—either by an omen, or let me see it in a dream, or let a prophet declare it. It should be noted that the three methods of obtaining divine guidance—an oracle dream, an omen, or a communica- tion through a prophet—are exactly the very same three meth- ods listed by King Saul when he had attempted to obtain Yahweh's guidance. But, exactly as in the case of the Israelite king who received no response, so to the appeals of the Hit- tite king "the gods did not hearken; the plague did not get better; the Land of the Hittites continued to be cruelly afflicted." "Matters were becoming too much for me," Mursilis wrote in this annal, and he redoubled his pious appeals to the god Teshub ("The Windblower" or "Storm God," whom the Sumerians called Ishkur and the Semitic peoples Adad, Fig. 80). Finally he managed to receive an oracle; since it was neither an omen nor a prophecy, it must have been a dream-oracle, the third method of divine communica- tion with the king. It was thus that Mursilis learned that his father Shuppiliumas, in whose time the plague began, did transgress in two ways: he discontinued certain offerings to the gods, and he broke his oath in a treaty with the Egyptians to keep the peace, and took Egyptian captives back to Hatti- land; and it was with them that the plague came to nest among the Hittites. Royal Dreams, Fateful Oracles