Position in chronology
SAA 10 042. The King is Scared by Lightning (ABL 0074) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: [your servant] Balasî. Good health to the king, my lord! [May Nabû and Marduk bless] the king, my lord! (5) As to what the king, m[y lord, wr]ote [to me]: "[In] the city of H[ar]ihumba lightning struck and ravaged the fields of the Assyrians" — why does the king look for (trouble), and why does he look (for it) [in the ho]me of a tiller? There is no evil inside the palace, and when has the king ever visited Harihumba? (16) Now, provided that there is (evil) inside the palace, they should go and perform the (ritual) "Evil of Lightning" there. In case the king, my…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334024/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia [ARAD-ka] / mba-la-si-i lu DI-[mu] / a-na LUGAL EN-⸢ia⸣ [dPA dAMAR.UTU] / a-na LUGAL EN-ia [lik-ru-bu] / ša LUGAL ⸢be⸣-[lí iš]-pur-[an-ni] / ma-⸢a*⸣ [ina] ⸢URU*.ḫa*-ri⸣-ḫum*-⸢ba*⸣ / ma-a [i]-⸢šá*-tú* TAv*⸣ AN-e / ⸢ta*-at*⸣-tu*-uq-ta A.ŠÀ*-MEŠ* / ⸢ša*⸣ KUR*.áš-šu-ra-a.a ta-ta-kal / ⸢LUGAL*⸣ a-ta-a ú-ba-ʾa-a / [ina] ⸢É⸣ LÚ.qa-tin-ni LUGAL / [a]-ta-a ú-ba-ʾa-a-ma / ⸢ḪUL*⸣ ina ŠÀ…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334024.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334024). 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/P334024/.
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