| jerusalem bible | (alternative genesis) |
|---|---|
|
Thus Heaven and Earth were completed with all their array. |
And so the struggle against the Heights and against the land below was completed. |
The key
to this verse lies in the term 
= zabam which, later, came to mean 'warfare' and 'army
service'. The biblical translation ignores this reference -
and yet the construction on the Heights with the dam wall and
the resulting reservoir, and the great cedar-wood edifices of
the Great House and the Building of Knowledge, must have posed
technical problems and a tremendous physical struggle.
The development of the low-lying land, below the dam, where the plantations were sited would hardly have been less arduous because the great watercourse had to be cut into rock (as mentioned earlier) to bring the reservoir waters under control, into the irrigation channels. We know that this was an almost unbearable toil, under a hot sun, from the Akkadian account of the insurrection of the Lordlings.
It had been warfare of a kind - against Nature and the challenges of an unfamiliar land.
