Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 10 039. Welcoming the King Back (ABL 0604+) [from astrologers]

~670 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P313994

Translation · reference

High confidence
(1) To the king, [my lo]rd: your servant Bal[asî]. Good health to the [king, my lord]! May [Nabû] and Marduk [bles]s [the king], my lord! (5) As to what the king, my lord, wrote to me: "From now on you will stay in my entourage; is there something you want to say?" — there is nothing. (11) May the great gods of heaven and earth give long-lasting days of life to the king, my lord! That the king remembered us and that we have not seen the king (I do not know) for how long today, that is (the sole reason) why we stand in front of the k[ing]. T[o whom] else would we be devoted? (r 4) To whom…

Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P313994/

Why it matters

Transliteration

a-na LUGAL ⸢EN⸣-[ia] / ARAD-ka mba-⸢la⸣-[si-i] / lu-u DI-mu a-na [LUGAL EN-ia] / [dPA] dAMAR.UTU a-[na LUGAL] EN-ia / [lik-ru]-⸢bu⸣ ša LUGAL be-lí / iš-pu-ra-an-ni ma-⸢a⸣ / ina ḫa-ra-am-me ina pu-tu-u-a / ta-ti-ti-sa ma-a a-bu-tú / i-ba-áš-ši ina pi-i-ku-nu / a-bu-tu la-áš-šu / DINGIR-MEŠ GAL-MEŠ ša AN-e KI.TIM / UD-MEŠ TI.LA GÍD.DA-MEŠ / a-na LUGAL EN-ia lid-di-nu / ša LUGAL ḫa-as-sa-na-ši-ni /…

Scholarly note

Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P313994.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313994). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P313994/.

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