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Figure 107 robes, is shown ushered by a lesser god (or goddess) into the presence of a "great god." A similar scene is depicted on a large stone stela found at a site called Abu Habba in Mesopo- tamia, in which the king-priest is being presented to the god Shamash (Fig. 107)—a scene that recalls those of the granting of codes of law that we have reproduced in earlier chapters. And, one must assume, in instances when a god had a human spouse or during divine encounters of the Sacred Marriage kind, the god or goddess was not unseen. (That, too, increased the Israelites' consternation, for no- where throughout the Hebrew Bible is there mention of Yah- weh as having a spouse, be it divine or human. This, biblical scholars believe, was why in spite of all admonitions the Israelites digressed toward veneration of Asherah, the princi- pal goddess of the Canaanite pantheon). Even in Sumer, where the presence of the Anunnaki gods in their ziggurats was an accepted fact, the Divine Word was conveyed to the people through the intermediary of oracle priests. Indeed, the name Terah of Abraham's father suggests that he was a Tirhu, an oracle priest; and the family's clan designation, Ibri ("Hebrew"), we believe, indicates that the family stemmed from Nippur (Enid's cult center), whose Sumerian name was NI.JBRU—"Beautiful dwelling place of crossing." After the demise of Sumer and the rise of Babylon DIVINE ENCOUNTERS