Psalm 104 and Akhenaten's Hymn to the Sun

Presenter: John Day (University of Oxford)
From the abstract: the dependence of Psalm 104:20-30 on the heretic pharaoh (14th c BCE)

A small segment of the text of this hymn is online here. I see from the wiki article that C.S.Lewis compared this hymn to the Psalms some time ago. A more complete text is here. I note that the comparison we were given is in English. The source of the Hymn is hieroglyphics and the text of Psalm 104 is Hebrew - so grammatical similarity is not something I can comment on.

There is less agreement with the glosses I have chosen than with the traditional glosses for English translation. There is a series of parallels in the ideas in the hymn and the psalm. But on close inspection of two English translations of the Hymn to the sun, the sequence of ideas is not as many as 6 but closer to 4.

One wonders therefore if there is a good case for some dependency of the later on the earlier. No doubt the Hebrew is the later by some 500 years - at least. (Personally, I doubt there is any dependency given the human tendency to reflect on primal actions of sleep and waking, on sea and land, mediated by the diurnal cycle of darkness and light. My theory would be proven if one could find in some unrelated culture another example of these ideas in one poem and in the night-day-birth-food-land-sea concept. The mention of lion and ship is not convincing to me - they are common observable things in the period and culture.)

The ideas are expressed in sequence as follows.  The middle column has the key words of the ideas with the line number from the Hymn to the Sun

Psalm 104 Hebrew	verse	Hymn to the sun line / keyword  (red = out of sequence)	Psalm 104 English
תָּשֶׁת חֹשֶׁךְ וִיהִי לָיְלָה בּוֹ תִרְמֹשׂ כָּל חַיְתוֹ יָעַר	20	25 The earth is in darkness like the dead 31 All Serpents [creeping things] they sting	you make darkness and it becomes night in it creep all the lives of the forest
הַכְּפִירִים שֹׁאֲגִים לַטָּרֶף וּלְבַקֵּשׁ מֵאֵל אָכְלָם	21	30 Every Lion comes forth from his den,	the young lions roar at their prey and seek from God their meat
תִּזְרַח הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ יֵאָסֵפוּן וְאֶל מְעוֹנֹתָם יִרְבָּצוּן	22	34 Bright is the earth when you rise in the horizon.	the sun appears they pride themselves and in their dens they make their home
יֵצֵא אָדָם לְפָעֳלוֹ וְלַעֲבֹדָתוֹ עֲדֵי עָרֶב	23	41 Then in all the world they do their work.	the human goes forth to his work and to his services till evening
מָה רַבּוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ יְהוָה כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ קִנְיָנֶךָ	24	68 How manifold it is, what thou hast made! 74 whatever is on earth	how many your works יְהוָה all of them in wisdom you have made the whole earth is your possession
זֶה הַיָּם גָּדוֹל וּרְחַב יָדָיִם שָׁם רֶמֶשׂ וְאֵין מִסְפָּר חַיּוֹת קְטַנּוֹת עִם גְּדֹלוֹת	25	53 Your rays are in the midst of the great green sea.	There is the great sea and wide of hand there organisms and there is no number of those living small with great
שָׁם אֳנִיּוֹת יְהַלֵּכוּן לִוְיָתָן זֶה יָצַרְתָּ לְשַׂחֶק בּוֹ	26	49 The barges [ships] sail upstream and downstream alike. 52 The fish in the river leap before you.	there go the ships Leviathan that you formed to play there
כֻּלָּם אֵלֶיךָ יְשַׂבֵּרוּן לָתֵת אָכְלָם בְּעִתּוֹ	27	[indeterminate line number] When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the shell You give him breath to preserve him alive. 77 You supply its necessities	all of them look to you to give their food in its time
תִּתֵּן לָהֶם יִלְקֹטוּן תִּפְתַּח יָדְךָ יִשְׂבְּעוּן טוֹב	28	... To chirp with all his might.	you give to them they glean You open your hand they are satisfied with good
תַּסְתִּיר פָּנֶיךָ יִבָּהֵלוּן תֹּסֵף רוּחָם יִגְוָעוּן וְאֶל עֲפָרָם יְשׁוּבוּן	29	the translation on the web does not allow any further gloss highlights.	you hide your face they are disturbed you will gather their spirit they expire and to the dust they return
תְּשַׁלַּח רוּחֲךָ יִבָּרֵאוּן וּתְחַדֵּשׁ פְּנֵי אֲדָמָה	30	.	you send out your spirit they are created and you renew the face of the earth