Sin, Pollution & the Anger of God

When trouble struck — illness, loss, bad luck — Mesopotamians often read it as a sign that they had offended a god, knowingly or not, and that their protective deity had withdrawn in anger, leaving them open to demons and disease. The offense might be a moral fault, a ritual lapse, or a transgression one never realized one had committed. Relief came through confession, prayer, and the rites of the exorcist, which identified the cause, appeased the god, and lifted the impurity. The poignant theme of the 'unwitting sin' — being punished for a fault one cannot even name — runs through the wisdom and prayer literature.