Position in chronology
SAA 10 221. The Substitute King Should Go to his Fate (ABL 0362) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To [the 'farmer,' our lord]: your servants [Adad-šumu-uṣur] and Marduk-šakin-šumi. [Good] health to our lord! [May Nabû and] Marduk [bles]s our lord! (6) Concerning the 15th day [about which our lord] said: "Let the substitute [kin]g [g]o to his fate and let me perform my ritual on the 16th day as before" — the 16th is a good day to perform (the ritual). (13) As our fathers did for their lords, and (as) the 'farmer' has already done once and twice, (while) Bel and Nabû provided well-being, just so let us also do now. Why should we wait as if it were not auspicious? (r 5) And as even the apprentices say: "It is recorded as favourable in Inbu bēl arhi," just so we shall keep it. Hence the 16th day is among the good days and is good, (whereas) the 17th day is not good.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334238/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na [LÚ.ENGAR be-lí-ni] / ARAD-MEŠ-ka [mdIM—MU—PAB] / mdAMAR.UTU—GAR—MU / [lu-u] DI-mu a-na be-lí-ni / [dPA u d]AMAR.UTU a-na be-lí-ni / [lik-ru]-⸢bu⸣ ina UGU UD 15-KÁM / [ša be-lí-ni] iq-bu-u-ni / [ma-a] ⸢LUGAL*⸣—pu-u-ḫi a-na šim-ti / [lil]-⸢li⸣-ki ma-a ana-ku UD 16-KÁM / [ki-i] ša IGI-tim-ma / dul-li le-pu-uš / UD 16-KÁM DÙG.GA a-na e-pa-a-še / ki-i ša AD-MEŠ-ni / a-na EN-MEŠ-šú-nu…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334238.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334238). 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/P334238/.
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