Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 21 020. He is Shut up in the City with All His Forces (ABL 1186)

~660 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P424868

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 21
High confidence
Beginning destroyed (1) “tak[e prisoners …….]; I shall send you forces.” (3') But you, when you saw this, why did you not kill those who were to be killed and take prisoners those who were to be taken prisoners? Certainly (the troops) who came were not more numerous than you! (8') Now fear not, but guard my temples. He is shut up in the city with all his forces, and my army is surrounding him. (12') Now, wherever you see a messenger of his, kill those who are to be killed and take prisoners those who are to be taken prisoners. (rest (one line) uninscribed) (uninscribed) (beginning (two lines) broken away) (r 1') in [.......] (r 2') if [......] (r 3') ten [......] (r 4') d[o ……] (rest uninscribed)

State Archives of Assyria, volume 21 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Transliteration

ṣab-⸢bi⸣-[ta] ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x] / e-mu-⸢qe⸣-e ⸢ú*-še*⸣-bal-⸢ú-nak-ku⸣-[nu] / ù at-tu-nu a-ta-a ki-i / an-ni-ú ta-mur-a-ni ša du-a-ki / la ta-du-ú-ka šá ṣa-ba-te / la ta-aṣ-ba-ta šá il-lik-ú-nin-ni / šu-nu-ú ina UGU-ḫi-ku-nu ma-aʾ-du / ú-ma-a la ta-pal-la-ḫa / EN.NUN ša É—DINGIR-MEŠ-ía uṣ-ra / šu-ú gab-bi-šú-ma ina ŠÀ URU e-sír / ù e-mu-qi-ia la-bi-ú-šú / ú-ma-a bé-et LÚ.A—KIN-šú /…

Scholarly note

Royal correspondence under Assurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 21, 2018). ORACC text P424868.

Attribution

Image: Adapted from Simo Parpola, The Correspondence of Ashurbanipal, Part I: Letters from Assyria, Babylonia, and Vassal States (State Archives of Assyria, 21), 2018. Adapted by Jamie Novotny and lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P424868/..
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 2018. The Correspondence of Assurbanipal, Part I: Letters from Assyria, Central Babylonia, and Vassal States. SAA 21. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa21/P424868/.

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