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80 Especially enraged was Marduk, who received word of looting, destructions, and desecrations in his cherished Bab- ylon. It will be recalled that the last time he was there he was persuaded by his half-brother Nergal to leave peacefully un- til the Celestial Time would reach the Age of the Ram. He did so having received Nergal’s solemn word that nothing would be disturbed or desecrated in Babylon, but the oppo- site happened. Marduk was angered by the reported dese- cration of his temple there by the “unworthy” Elamites: “To herds of dogs Babylon’s temple they made a den; flying ra- vens, loudly shrieking, their dung dropped there.” From Harran he cried out to the great gods: “Until When?” Has not the Time arrived yet, he asked in his prophetic auto- biography: O great gods, learn my secrets as I girdle my belt, my memories remember. Iam the divine Marduk, a great god. I was cast off for my sins, to the mountains I have gone. In many lands I have been a wanderer. From where the sun rises to where it sets I went. To the highland of Hatti I came. In Hattiland I asked for an oracle; in it I asked: “Until when?” “Twenty-four years in Harran’s midst I nested,’ Marduk went on; “my days are completed!” The time has come, he said, to set his course to his city (Babylon), “my temple to rebuild, my everlasting abode to establish.” Waxing vision- ary, he spoke of seeing his temple E.SAG.ILA (“Temple whose head is lofty’’) rising as a mountain upon a platform in Babylon, calling it “The house of my covenant.” He foresaw Babylon as forever established, a king of his choice installed there, a city filled with joy, a city blessed by Anu. The mes- sianic times, Marduk prophesied, will “chase away evil and bad luck, bring motherly love to Mankind.” The year in which a sojourn of twenty-four years in Harran was completed was 2024 B.c.E.; it marked seventy-two years THE END OF DAYS