Position in chronology
SAA 04 274. Should Assurbanipal, King of Assyria and Elam, Appoint NN ...? (AGS 154) [military and political]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 4(1) [Šamaš], great [lord, give me a firm positive answer to what] I am asking you! (2) [Should Assur]banipal, king of Assyria (and) king of [El]am, [appoint NN] over [......]? (4) [If he appoint]s him, [as long as he holds this position, will he instigate an insurrection and rebellion] aga[inst Assurbanipal ....]? (Break) (r 1) whether he will cause others to instigate it, plot it, [or act with evil intent against him]. (r 2) Be present [in this r]am, [place (in it) a fi]rm positive answer, [favorable designs], favorable, propitious [ome]ns by the oracular [command of your great divinity, and may I see (them)]. (r 4) [May (this query) g]o to your [great] divinity, [O Šamaš, great lord], and may an oracle be given [as an answer].
State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[dUTU EN] GAL-[ú šá] a-šal-lu-⸢ka⸣ [an-na GI.NA a-pal-an-ni] / [mdaš-šur]—DÙ*—[A*] LUGAL KUR—aš-šur LUGAL [KUR].⸢NIM⸣.MA*.[KI] / [mx x x] ⸢a⸣-na UGU ki-[x x x x x x lip-qid] / [GIM ip-taq-du]-⸢uš⸣ a-⸢di⸣ [mál UD-MEŠ x x x x x x x] / [si-ḫu bar-tu] ⸢a-na UGU⸣ [maš-šur—DÙ—A x x x x x x x] / [x x x ú]-⸢še⸣-ep-pe-[šú] i-dab-bu-bu [ŠU.2-su a-na ḪUL-tim i-na ŠÀ-bi-šú ub-ba-lu] / [i-na ŠÀ UDU].⸢NÍTA⸣…
Scholarly note
Extispicy query addressed to Šamaš, the sungod and patron of divination, edited by Ivan Starr (SAA 4, 1990). The king asks the deity to render a yes/no verdict on a political or military question. ORACC text P238989.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Ivan Starr, Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria (State Archives of Assyria, 4), 1990. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P238989/..
Translation excerpted from Starr, I. 1990. Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria. SAA 4. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/P238989/.
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