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322 In its midst [I asked]: "Until when?" 24 years, in its midst, I nested. My days [of exile] were completed: To my city I [set my course]; My temple Esagila as a mount [to raise/rebuild]. My everlasting abode to [reestablish]. I raised my heels [toward Babylon] Through. . . lands [I went] to my city her [future? well-being?) to establish. A king in Babylon to [install] In the house of my covenant. . . In the mountlike Esagil . . . nea By Anu created... Into the Esagil. . . A platform to raise... In my city... T.-. Joy... The damaged tablet then lists the cities through which Marduk had passed on his way to Babylon. The few legible city names indi- cate that Marduk's route from Asia Minor to Mesopotamia took him first south to the city of Hama (the biblical Hamat), then eastward via Mari (see map, page 304). He had indeed come to Mesopotamia—as the omens had predicted—from the west, ac- companied by Amorite ("Westerners") supporters. His wish. Marduk continued, was to bring peace and prosperity to the land, "chase away evil and bad luck . . . bring motherly love to Mankind." But it all came to naught: Against his city, Bab- ylon, an adversary god "his wrath had brought." The name of this adversary god is stated at the very beginning of a new column of the text; but all that has remained of it is the first syllable: "Divine NIN-." The reference could have been only to Ninurta. We learn little from this tablet of the actions taken by this adver- sary, for all the subsequent verses are badly damaged and the text becomes unintelligible. But we can pick up some of the missing threads from the third tablet of the Khedorlaomer lexis. In spite of its enigmatic aspects, it paints a picture of total turmoil, with ad- versary gods marching against each other at the head of their hu- man troops: the Amorite supporters of Marduk swooped down the THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN Then, in that twenty-fourth year, he received a favorable omen: