SAA 09 008. Words Concerning the Elamites (ABL 1280)

~670 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P334828

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 9

High confidence

(1) Words [concerning the Elam]ites. (2) [God] says as follows: (3) "I have go[ne and I ha]ve come." (4) He s[ai]d (this) five, six times, and then: (5) "I have come from the [m]ace. I have pulled out the snake which was inside it, I have cut it in pieces, and I have broken the mace." (8) And (he said): "I will destroy Elam; its army shall be levelled to the ground. In this manner I will finish Elam."

State Archives of Assyria, volume 9 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.

Transliteration

dib-bi [ša KUR.NIM.MA].⸢KI*⸣-a.a / ki-i an-[ni-i DINGIR] ⸢i⸣-qab-bi / ma-a at-⸢ta*⸣-[lak at]-tal-ka / 05-šú 06-šú iq-[ṭi]-⸢bi⸣ id—da-a-te / ma-a TAv UGU GIŠ.[nàr]-an-ti at-tal-ka / ma-a MUŠ ša ina ŠÀ-bi-šá as-sa-ad-da / ab-ta-taq ù ma-a GIŠ.nàr-an-tu / aḫ-te-pi ù ma-a KUR.NIM.MA.KI / a-ḫap-pi :. o* Á.2-MEŠ-šú TAv kaq-qir / i-sap-pan ma-a ki-i an-ni-i / KUR.NIM.MA.KI a*-gam-mar

Scholarly note

Neo-Assyrian prophetic oracle, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 9, 1997). ORACC text P334828.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P334828). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1997. Assyrian Prophecies. SAA 9. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa09/P334828/.

Related tablets

Related sources

~650 BCE

Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI (the Flood)

A major witness to the Mesopotamian Flood tradition and its relationship to later biblical literature. The date of this particular copy must be distinguished from the older history of the story.

~2300 BCE

Disk of Enheduanna

An object naming and depicting a powerful priestess and royal daughter around 2300 BCE. Enheduanna is also a landmark in named literary authorship, but that literary legacy must be distinguished from this disk’s dedication.

~1808 BCE

Sumerian King List (Weld-Blundell Prism)

The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.