The top of the Fourth Column of the text follows immediately on the
close of the Third Column, so that at this one point we have no great
gap between the columns. But unfortunately the ends of all the lines
in both columns are wanting, and the exact content of some phrases
preserved and their relation to each other are consequently doubtful.
This materially affects the interpretation of the passage as a whole,
but the main thread of the narrative may be readily followed. Ziusudu is
here warned that a flood is to be sent "to destroy the seed of mankind";
the doubt that exists concerns the manner in which the warning is
conveyed. In the first line of the column, after a reference to "the
gods", a building seems to be mentioned, and Ziusudu, standing beside
it, apparently hears a voice, which bids him take his stand beside
a wall and then conveys to him the warning of the coming flood. The
destruction of mankind had been decreed in "the assembly (of the gods)"
and would be carried out by the commands of Anu and Enlil. Before the
text breaks off we again have a reference to the "kingdom" and "its
rule", a further trace of the close association of the Deluge with the
dynastic succession in the early traditions of Sumer.
In the opening words of the warning to Ziusudu, with its prominent
repetition of the word "wall", we must evidently trace some connexion
with the puzzling words of Ea in the Gilgamesh Epic, when he begins his
warning to Ut-napishtim. The warnings, as given in the two versions, are
printed below in parallel columns for comparison.(1) The Gilgamesh Epic,
after relating how the great gods in Shuruppak had decided to send a
deluge, continues as follows in the right-hand column: