168 herbert niehr
King Zakkur of hamath (Kai 202). it was written on the lower part of a
stele; the upper part once held a statue of which only the feet on a stool
are extant. the statue was most likely a representation of King Zakkur and
was placed before the god iluwer in one of his sanctuaries.205 the stele
was not found in hamath, though. in all likelihood it was discovered on
the acropolis of hazrak, modern tell afis206 in 1903. the obverse of the
inscription (a) states the following about the god Baʿalšamayin:
(1) the monument which Zakkur, king of hamath and luʿaš, set up for iluwer
[in afis.] (2) i am Zakkur, king of hamath and luʿaš. i am a man of ʿanah
and Baʿalšamayin [raised (3) m]e and stood beside me, and Baʿalšamayin
made me king [over] (4) hazrak. then Bar-hadad, son of hazael, king of
aram, united against me s[even](5)teen kings. Bar-hadad and his army, Bar-
gush and his army, [the ki(6)ng of ] Que and his army, the king of amuq and
his army, the king of gurgu[m] (7) [and] his [ar]my, the king of samʾal and
his a[rmy], the king of Melid [and his army]... (8) [... ] seven[teen kings],
[th]ey and their armies. all these kings laid siege to hazra[k] (10) and they
raised a wall higher than the wall of hazrak, they dug a ditch deeper than
[its] dit[ch]. (11) now i raised my hands to Baʿalšamayin and Baʿalšamayin
answered me [and] Baʿalšamayin [spoke to (12) me] through seers and
diviners. [and Baʿalšamayin said to (13) me]: “Do not be afraid! since i have
made [you king, i will (14) stand] beside you. i will save you from all [these
kings who] (15) have besieged you.” [Baʿalšamayin] also said to [me, “... ]
all these kings who have [besieged you... ] and this wall [... ].”207 (Kai
202 a: 1–15)the god iluwer mentioned in first place is the god to whom King Zakkur
erected the stele as a sign of his personal devotion (line 1). During the
second half of the 3rd and the first half of the 2nd millennium B.c. the god
Wer or Mer, later iluwer, was one of the most important weather-gods in
the Middle euphrates area between tuttul and ʿanah.
there is no direct evidence of the cult of iluwer in the euphrates region
imported by Zakkur to hamath during the 1st millennium B.c., to which
the Zakkur inscription belongs.208
according to this inscription, the god Baʿalšamayin often acted favor-
ably on behalf of his protégé Zakkur. in addition, Baʿalšamayin appears as
205 in regard to the surviving feet on a stool of the royal statue, cf. the aramaean royal
statue from ʿain et-tell (ca. 800 B.c.) in orthmann 1975: fig. 411.
206 on afis as the citadel of hazrak, cf. lipiński 2000a: 255–258 and niehr 2003: 94.
207 cf. on the english translation especially gibson 1975: 9–13; lipiński 2000a: 255;
Millard 2000b.
208 cf. on iluwer schwemer 2001: 200–210; id. 2008: 27–29; Masetti-rouault 2009: 145.