Position in chronology
SAA 17 029. Please Return my Sons and People from Calah (ABL 0698)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) Your servant Bel-iqiša: I would gladly die for the king of the universe, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! Say to the king, my lord: (6) For the past five months I have been waiting for news from the king, my lord. And now, thanks to Bel and Nabû, he has co[me] to Calah safely, as usu[al]. (11) All my manservants who give me water to drink have run away, and my people in Calah have become afraid. (15) May the king command before winter sets in that they can be sent back! (Break) (r 1) Why ... [...] (r 2) of the king, my lord, [...], (r 3) and the king will hear [...]. (r 4) [T]hese past 4 years, ever since I have [guarded] the king's garrison, why to [...] (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
ARAD-ka mdEN—BA-šá / a-na di-na-an LUGAL ⸢kiš*⸣-šá*-ti* / be-lí-ia lul-lik dAG u dAMAR.UTU / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia lik-ru-bu / um-ma-a a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia-a-ma / 05 ITI-MEŠ a-ga-a pa-an ṭè-e-mi / šá LUGAL be-lí-ia ad-da-gal / ù en-na dEN u dAG ki-i [o] / ú-šal-li-mu ina šá-lim-ti ⸢gi*⸣-[na-a] / a-na URU.ka-làḫ it-<ta>-la-[ak] / LÚ.TUR-MEŠ-ia gab-bi šá A!-MEŠ [o] / i-šaq-qu-in-ni iḫ-tal-⸢qu*⸣ [o] /…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P240311.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Manfried Dietrich, The Neo-Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib (State Archives of Assyria, 17), 2003. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2009-11, as part of the AHRC-funded research project “Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th Century BC” (AH/F016581/1; University College London) directed by Karen Radner. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P240311/..
Translation excerpted from Dietrich, M. 2003. The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib. SAA 17. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa17/P240311/.
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