03_Samet_375_375_390 04/11/15 15:08 Pagina 382 382 NILI SAMET 382 scribe everyday life. Rather, they are typical scenes describing the difficulties involved in a military campaign, which may well allude to the heroic journey of Gilgamesh and Enkidu to the cedar forest 22. The similarities between the biblical and Mesopotamian sources may even bear significance for the restoration and interpretation of the latter. In Gilgamesh, the glacis slope appears in a context too broken to be reconstructed on the basis of the Akkadian source it- self. Yet taking the Hebrew parallel into account, we may cautiously reconstruct Enkidu’s argument here, suggesting that this line in the Mesopotamian epic described the advantage of two fellows who are walking together on a slippery trail and support each other, versus the weakness of a lonely hero who walks there alone, and “when he falls… he has not another to help him up”. We may therefore conclude that the Standard Babylonian version of Gilgamesh, despite its fragmentary condition, is more similar to the biblical passage than the ancient Sumerian version. While the Sumerian version from the early second millennium BCE shares two features with Qohelet, that is, the main idea and the three-ply cord metaphor, the Standard Babylonian version reveals additional specific parallels to the biblical text, to the extent that we may use Qohelet to reconstruct a broken line in the Gilgamesh epic. A third parallel, not recognized thus far, may be added to the list. The same Old Babylonian tablet which includes the alewife’s counsel to Gilgamesh describes another wisdom dialogue, where Gilgamesh is reproved by the god Shamash for his futile aspiration to become immortal 23: Gilgamesh, where are you wandering? You cannot find the life that you seek. In his response to Shamash, Gilgamesh expresses the human desire to experience life in full, precisely because of its limited duration 24: Within the Netherworld, will rest be scarce? I shall lie asleep down all the years, (But now), let my eyes look at the sun so I am sated with light, Is darkness far? How much light is there? When may a dead man see the rays of the sun? 22 SHAFFER, “Mesopotamian Background”, 248-249; SEOW, Ecclesiastes, 189. 23 GEORGE, Gilgamesh I, 276-277. 24 GEORGE, Gilgamesh I, 276-277.