Position in chronology
SAA 10 265. Giving the Best Possible Advice to the King (CT 53 152) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant] Marduk-šakin-šumi. [Good health] to the king, my lord! [May Nabû and] Marduk [bles]s the king, my lord! (5) Concerning what the king, my lord, [wrote] to me: "Is this the [tru]th?" — may Bel and Nabû, [your gods], call to account [the one] who is [not honest] with the king, his lord! [...] recently [......; I] was confused. I did not see his [...], (but) perhaps the king, my lord, saw. What can I say? (15) In any case, I guarantee under oath: it shall be a great success. (r 1) If the king, my lord, had not attained his desire and i[f] he had not gone…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P313567/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia] / [ARAD-ka md]AMAR.UTU—GAR—⸢MU⸣ / [lu-u DI-mu] ⸢a⸣-na LUGAL EN-ia / [dPA u] ⸢d⸣AMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL EN-ia / [lik-ru]-⸢bu⸣ ina ⸢UGU⸣ ša LUGAL be-lí / [iš-pur]-⸢an⸣-ni ⸢ma⸣-a an-ni-tu-u ši-i / [ket]-⸢tu⸣ ša TAv LUGAL EN-šú / [la ke-nu-u]-ni dEN u dPA / [DINGIR-MEŠ-ka ina] ŠU.2-šú lu-ba-ʾi-iu-u / [x x x is]-su ḫa-ra-am-me / [x x x ad]-da-la-aḫ / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣-ti-šú la a-mur /…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P313567.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313567). 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/P313567/.
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