Position in chronology
SAA 10 278. Averting a Portent (ABL 0051) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Nabû-nadin-šumi. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! (6) Concerning the apotropaic ritual against evil of any kind, about which the king wrote to me: "Perform it tomorrow" — the day is not propitious. We shall prepare it on the 25th and perform it on the 26th. (12) Anyway, the king, my lord, should not be worried about this portent. Bel and Nabû can make a portent pass by, and they will make it bypass the king, my lord. The king, my lord, should not be afraid.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334003/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka mdPA—SUM—MU / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ía / dPA u dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL / be-lí-ia lik-ru-bu / ina UGU NAM.BÚR.BI ḪUL DÙ.A.BI / <ša> LUGAL be-lí iš-pur-an-ni / ma-a a-na ši-ia-a-ri / e-pu-uš UD-mu la DÙG.GA / UD 25-KÁM nu-šá-aṣ-bat / UD 26-KÁM né-pa-áš / ù ina UGU it-ti / an-ni-ti LUGAL be-lí / [TAv ŠÀ]-⸢bi⸣-šú / lu ⸢la*⸣ id-da-ab-bu-ub / dEN ù dPA am—mar / GISKIM še-tu-uq-qi / ma-ṣu a-na LUGAL EN-ía / ú-še-tu-uq-qu / LUGAL be-lí lu la i-pa-làḫ
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334003.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334003). 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/P334003/.
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