Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 093
Written in modern English
Two tall obelisks cast in shiny zaḫalû-metal, each weighing 2,500 talents, had stood at a temple gate; Ashurbanipal tore them from their bases and carried them off to Assyria. On his second campaign he marched against Baʾalu, king of Tyre, who ruled from an island city in the sea. Because Baʾalu refused to honor the king's commands or obey his orders, Ashurbanipal set up blockade posts around him, cutting off his routes by both sea and land and strangling the lives of his people. The inscription breaks off here.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(1') ... [...] two tall obelisks [cast with shiny zaḫalû-metal, whose weight was 2,500 talents (and which) stood at a temple gate, I ripped (them)] from where th[ey] were erected [and took (them) to Assyria]. (4') On my second campaign, [I marched] ag[ainst Baʾalu, the king of the land Tyre who resides in the middle of the sea]. Because he did not honor my royal command(s and) did not obe[y the pronouncement(s) from my lips], I set up outposts against him. By sea (and) dry land, [I took control of (all of) his] r[outes]. I constricted (and) cut short their lives. I made [them (the people of…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
(traces) [...] / 2 GIŠ.⸢tim⸣-me MAḪ.⸢MEŠ⸣ [pi-tiq za-ḫa-le-e eb-bi ša 2 LIM 5 ME GUN KI.LÁ-šú-nu man-za-az KÁ É.KUR] / ul-tu man-zal-⸢ti-šú⸣-[nu as-suḫ-ma al-qa-a a-na KUR AN.ŠÁR.KI] / i-na 2-e ger-ri-⸢ia UGU⸣ [mba-ʾa-li LUGAL KUR.ṣur-ri a-šib MURUB₄ tam-tim al-lik] / ša a-mat LUGAL-ti-ia la iṣ-ṣu-⸢ru la iš-mu⸣-[u zi-kir šap-ti-ia] / URU.ḪAL.ṢU.MEŠ UGU-šú ú-rak-kis ina tam-tim ⸢na⸣-ba-li…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q003792.
Attribution
Image: Created by Jamie Novotny and Joshua Jeffers, 2015-22. Lemmatized by Joshua Jeffers, 2018-22, for the NEH-funded RINAP Project at the University of Pennsylvania. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/rinap/Q003792/..
Translation excerpted from Novotny, J. & Jeffers, J. 2018–. The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668–631 BC), Aššur-etel-ilāni (630–627 BC) and Sîn-šarra-iškun (626–612 BC), Kings of Assyria. RINAP 5. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003792/.
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