My father lit candles for me; Like a torch the Shamash shone.
We find that Khammurabi was very devoted to Shamash, the early type of sun-god.
War being uppermost in their thoughts, the other side of Shamash's nature—his power and violence—was not overlooked.
When the king mercifully sets certain captives free, it is in the presence of Shamash that he performs this act.
(whom he addresses as 'Son of Shamash') to put his name upon it as his fathers had done in the past.
He calls Shamash the 'protecting deity,' but the protection vouchsafed by Shamash is to be understood in a peculiar sense.
