Position in chronology
SAA 13 173. We Are Rebuilding Babylon (ABL 0501)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord]: your servant, Rašil. May [Marduk and Zarpan]itu bless the king, my lord. (3) I [was a dead dog], but the king, my lord, revived me. He helped me conquer [my famine and h]unger. [Now if] I had not written [to] the king, my lord, concerning the house of my lords [and ...], they would not have sought [... from] my [hands, and the king, my lord], would not have stretched out [his hand towar]d me. (9) [And because the]y saw [that we ourselves] are rebuilding Babylon, they too complained. [Just now], when I heard, I wrote [to the king, my lord]. (Break) (r 2) [......] land of the king (r 3) (Break) (r 8) [...... s]ent (r 9) [The king should d]o [as he] deems best.
Source: Cole, S.W. & Machinist, P. 1998. Letters from Priests to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. SAA 13. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa13/P237672/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL EN-ía] ARAD-ka mTUK-ši—DINGIR / [dAMAR.UTU dzar-pa]-ni-tum a-na LUGAL EN-ía lik-ru-bu / [kal-bi me-e-te a]-⸢na⸣-ku LUGAL EN-a ub-ta-liṭ-a-ni / [su-un-qí ù bu]-bu-ti ul-tak-šid-an-ni / [a-du-ú ki-i] a-na UGU É—EN-MEŠ-e-a / [ù x x x a-na] LUGAL EN-ía la al-tap-ra / [x x x x ina ŠU.2]-ía ul ú-ba-ʾu-ú / [LUGAL be-lí ŠU-su a-na] ⸢UGU⸣-ia ul ú-ta-ri-ṣi / [ù ki-i i]-mu-ru-ma TIN.TIR.KI /…
Scholarly note
Letter from a temple priest or ritual official to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Steven Cole & Peter Machinist (SAA 13, 1998). ORACC text P237672.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237672). source
Translation excerpted from Cole, S.W. & Machinist, P. 1998. Letters from Priests to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. SAA 13. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa13/P237672/.
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