Rev.
I Gibil! his light
2 Is bright as day
3 Azag-šud ...
4 Of Bel) Nuskut)
5 Fell upon).
6 His brilliant appearance
7 Enlightens the darkness.
8 O Marduk! child of Eridu,
9 Pronounce the incantation.
10 O God, who fell upon him,
1. May he become pure.
II

O God! may he become clean.
13 As the earth may he be pure.
14a As the heart of heaven may he be pure.
146 May the evil tongue turn away.

12

Notes. This tablet contains the text of an incantation. As is not infrequent in such texts the greater part of the text is a hymn of praise

to Gibil, the fire-god. At 1. 8 of the reverse the direct petition begins. The tablet is not well preserved, especially the Sumerian half, and for this reason it is impossible to give a perfect translation.

L. 2. guru: for this reading of IL-RU see AL4, p. 108, 101. 5

L. 3. ilûti, i. e. 'divinity. The Sumerian dimmerene means 'gods."
L. 4. STR. AV, p. 894 quotes wrongly MAH-KI-GA.
L. 5 is doubtless to be restored: melamme iscủti.

L. 6. u-sa-'a-að-uš appears to be a verb II, i from a root wat or txt, with the third pers. pronominal suffix. Such a root is un10 known. The meaning of the passage is probably 'awful brilliance is

his robe, belongs to him. For similar phrases cf. melammu in HWB 4145 and Muss-ARNOLT, Dict. p. 550. [Read usâ inuš 'decked him.')

L. 7. E-zu-ab is the name of the temple at Eridu. The meaning is 'house of the Ocean.' 15 L. 9. Kunnu, permans. in a relative clause, from 712.*

L. 10. The syntactical connection is not quite sure. I have taken it as dependent on endu.

L. II. endu, permansive from emêdu; (cf. Habakkuk 3, 11. - P.H.].

Rev. L. 2. it-ta(?)-na(?)-an-nar, IV, 2 from namâru, for ittanmar. 20 This form may throw some light on the derivation of Nannaru; cf. Str. AV 1023. DEL. Gramm. § 496; ZA XVI, p. 405f.

L. 3. Lines 3-5 are so broken that a translation is impossible; (il)AZAG-SUD also in King, Magic, XII (p. 57) 86; ZIMMERN, Šurpiu

, VIII, 10, and BR. 9906.

L. 4. I conjecture for the Sumerian (dimmer) EN-LIL-LÁ-gi (dimmer) GI-BIL-LÁ. To be noted is the order GI-BIL-LÁ instead of the ordinary BIL-GI. If ú at the end of the Semitic line is phonetic complement to the name of this god, we should perhaps read Nusku.

L. 10. 'Him' evidently refers to the suffering supplicant.
L. 12 ff. Cf. IV R. 14, No. 2, 26 ff.:
an-dim ki-ma šamê li-lil

he-en-azag-ga
ki-dim ki-ma irșitim li-bi-ib he-en-el-la
ša-an-dim ki-ma ki-rib šamê lim-mir he-en-lah-lah-ga

1 HUL-GAL bar-šu [
L. 14. Cf. IV R. 8, 44/45:
NAM-NE-RU (erim?) HUL-GAL bar-šu he-im-ta-gub

ma-mit li-mut-tum ina a-ha-a-ti li-is-sis that is, May the evil curse turn away.

Doubtless the end of our line is to be supplemented according 40 to this, especially as in this augmented form it occurs frequently in

Tablet IX of the Surpu series, e. g. 11. 8. 16. 23. 31. 39. 46.

25

30

35

I

XV, K. 3477. ] uš-tar-rah ( 2 ša-ki-tu ilat(at) ill 3 ra-mat ki-rib 4 bi-šit usnâ ilânilpl) u mal-ki 5 e-ri-bu-šu el-și-iš har 6 ás-šum še-mu-u anl 7 ilâni(pl) si-hir-til 8 ina bâb-i-šu[ 9 ú-tar-ra hat-tú-šus 10 a-ši-bi kir-bi-šu bêltu şir-túl II šá ilâni(pl) a-na ši-tul-tis 12 ka-la (il)ilâtis 13 ba-u-la-a-ti ana balâț napšâti-ši-nal 14 ana šumu-ša

[ 15 ] i-šú-ub-bu-ši 16 ] i-lab-bi-nu-ši

[ 17 ] kaķ-ka-di 18 ] dat)-di-e

Į su-ša

-
19
] kis-šat

mu-kil-lat na-pis-ti
] me pl)
lab-bi-na-at() [

tuk)-11

şa-me-da-at NER-TUR-MES () 22

la pa-du-u nam-şa-rum sak-tú 23

Iri ša pul-ha-a-ti sa-'a-niš 24

]

ķa-rit-tú be-lat tu-ša-ri 25

(il)/š-tar kabli be-lat ta-ha-ci 26

]

mu-šam-ki-ta-at sa-'a-i-ri 27

la ma-gi-ri še-pu-uš-ša ]

la ut-tak-ka-rum și-it pi-i-ša 29

Ina

la un-tiš-ša lu dan-nu-u-sa 30

та la uš-te-şu-u it-ti 31

Ješ

ša ma-sa-ta mál lib 32 jše-pis-ša

kab-tu ša šu-tu-rat |

20 21

28

Rev.

I dupl-pi 33 mu-lal (

1 (il)Ištar a-ši-bit) ... 2 beltu rabîtu beltu ša Ašur-bani-apla šar mât Aššur kak tu-u-šar| 3 mat)-har (il)Ištar beltišu u-kin ah-[rataš()

3 Who dwells in E-nin ... 4 The wisdom of gods and princes .. 5 Her(? his?) entrance with joy ... 6 To hear ... 7 The gods of the neighborhood .... 8 In its gate . 9 Who takes away its terror . 10 Who dwelleth within it, exalted goddess 1 Who .... the gods to deliberation ... 12 All the goddesses ... 13 The dominions for the life of their souls .... 14 To her name . 15

who .... her . 16.

who pray to her . 17

head

.

she who holds the life
she who oppresses
she who binds(?)
the sharp sword that does notspare,
whose adornment is terror,
heroic mistress of defeat,
Ištar of battle, mistress of the fight;
who lays the enemy low;
who is not obedient to her foot;
unchangeable is the utterance of

her mouth; who does not swear by her might; who does not send out ....; thou who accomplishest the desire

of (thy?) heart ...: her foot, thou mighty one, who art magni

ficent .

27 28

.

.

Rev.

1 Tablet 33

. . Ištar who dwells in(?).. 2 The great mistress, mistress of Ašurbanipal, king of Assyria, weap

ons of defeat) 3 Before(t) Ištar, his mistress, he placed for the future (?).

40

Notes. BEZOLD in his Cat, says: 'The colophon, rev., line 2 probably attributes the tablet to a series which begins tipay Y}<>[4]? &c.'

a

Enough remains of the hymn to show that it was dedicated to Ištar in her character of war-goddess; and if my attempted translation of the colophon is correct, it was written at a time when the king dedicated to her, or placed in her temple, some weapons captured in war.

5 It should be said that owing to the broken state of the tablet the translation given may not be in all respects correct.

L. I. The first sign is hardly tu.

L. 15. i-šu-ub-bu-ši must have about the same meaning as the following i-lab-bi-nu-ši. The root which one thinks of first is nat (cf. HWB 637a). I am not aware of any other verb, however, which has u in the pres. after the first radical. Our form suggests a root 970

10

*.שרף or

L. 19. mu-kil-lat from 5m2 II, 1.

L. 21. NER-TUR-MEŠ I do not know the meaning of. The sec- 15 ond last sign may be tuk.

L. 23. sa-'a-niš from the root 787 'to adorn’; cf. the expressions naši puluhtu, rašû puluhtu. [Cf. above, p. 591, 1. 12.]

L. 28, ut-tak-ka-rum, II, 2 from 23.
L. 29. un-tiš-ša, II, 2 from naša.

Rev. 1. 3. For the suggested completion cf. ukin ahrātaš Neb. II, 2 (ABEL-WINCKLER, P. 33f.); MUSS-ARNOLT, Dict. p. 402a.

20

XVI. K. 3258. I šur-bu-ú e-tel ilâni pl)

mu-du-ú ka-la-ma 2 kab-tu šú-tu-ķu (il)EN-LİL-LÁ ilâni(pl)

mu-šim ši-ma-a-ti (il)Ašur belu šur-bu-ú

mu-du-ú ka-la-ma 4 kab-tu šu-tu-ķu (il)EN-LİL-LÁ ilâni(pl)

mu-šim ši-ma-a-ti 5 rab)-bi (il)Ašur dan-dan-nu e-tel ilâni(pl) be-el ma-ta-a-ti 6 lu-ša (?)-pilt) nir-bi-e-šu

ta-nit-ta-šu lu-uš-tar-ra-ah 7 (il): Ašur lu-ša-pi si-kir-šu lu-šar-bi šum-šu 8 šat) a- šib?) E-HAR-SAG-GALKUR-KUR-RA

ta-nit-ta-šu lu-uš-tar-ra-ah 9 | lu-ut-tas-kar

kur-us-su lud-lul 10 ša(?) a)-šib (t) E-ŠAR-RA

(il)Ašur mu-šim šîmâti(pl)