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242 wise Adapa; you surpass all men in the knowledge of Apsu (Enki's domain)." In the same report the archivist, evidently trained as an omen-priest, also reported to Ashurbanipal the circumstances that made his father, Esarhaddon, invade Egypt. It was when "thy father Esarhaddon was in the region of Harran that he saw mere a temple of cedarwood, and he went in, and saw inside the god Sin leaning on a staff, holding two crowns." The god Nusku, the Divine Messenger of the gods, "was standing there before him; when the father of the king en- tered, the god placed a crown upon his head, saying, "You will go to countries, therein you will conquer.' Your father departed and conquered Egypt." Though the text does not say so explicitly, it is presumed that the incident at the temple in Harran was also a dream, a vision-dream seen by Esarhaddon. Indeed, both historical and religious texts from that time indicate that Nannar/Sin had left Mesopotamia after Sumer had been desolated and Marduk returned to Babylon to claim supremacy “on Earth and in Heaven" (in 2024 B.c. by our calculations). Harran, where Esarhaddon received the permissive oracle from the absent god, had been a twin cult center of Nannar/Sin, emulating that of Nannar/Sin's principal center in Sumer— the city of Ur. It was to Harran that Abraham's father, the priest Terah, took his family when they left Ur. And, as we shall see, Harran came again into prominence when dream-omens and real events once again changed the course of history. As prophesied by the biblical Prophets, mighty Assyria, the scourge of nations, lay prostrate before Achaemenid (Persian) invaders, who overran Nineveh in 612 B.C. In Babylon Nebu- chadnezzar, freed of Assyrian constraints, rushed into the void, capturing lands near and far, destroying the Temple in Jerusalem. But the days of Babylon were also numbered, and the end was foretold to the haughty king in a series of dreams. As recorded in the Bible (Daniel chapter 2) Nebu- chadnezzar had a troubling dream. He called in "the magi- cians, seers, sorcerers and Chaldeans" (i.e. astrologers) and asked them to interpret the dream—however, without telling them what the dream was. Unable to do so, he ordered their see, DIVINE ENCOUNTERS