Position in chronology
SAA 21 034. If You Repent, You’ll Be Rewarded (CT 54 080)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Obverse destroyed) (beginning broken away) (r 1') [...... As] they [say], “In [......],” did I [not] provide you [with ...? And re]garding what all the lands say, “Do the [k]ing’s work],” he who is devoted to [his lord, d]oes so. (r 6') Now then I’m writing to yo[u]: (7) [Behold], my [e]ars are open to appeals. [If you repent], and if for the curs[es that befell ...], you [n]ow afterwards do go[od deeds] and are recep[tive ... to the words of] this [mes]sage of mine, they [will give you] a nice reward in accordance with how [you do] this work. You [shall] be [d]one up, and thereby [you will see the ... and] the shares that I will give to your son and [your gr]andson(s). (blank space of one line)
Source: Parpola, S. 2018. The Correspondence of Assurbanipal, Part I: Letters from Assyria, Central Babylonia, and Vassal States. SAA 21. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa21/P238413/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x] ⸢x x⸣ [x x x x x] / [i-qab-bu]-ú um-ma i-⸢na⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x] ⸢x⸣ ú-šá-aṣ-bit-⸢ka⸣ [x x x x] / [ù i-na] UGU šá KUR.KUR i-qab-bu-⸢ú⸣ [um-ma dul-lu] / [šá] ⸢LUGAL⸣ e-pu-uš šá pa-ni-šú a-⸢na⸣ [x x x] / [ip]-⸢pu⸣-uš en-na a-du-ú al-<tap>-rak-⸢ka⸣ / [a-mur] ⸢uz⸣-na-a a-na ⸢ma⸣-ḫa-ra pe-ta-a [ki-i x x] / [x x x]-ma ù ki-i a-na ar-ra-[ti šá x x] / [x x a]-⸢du⸣-ú ár-ka-niš te-ep-pu-šu…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Assurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 21, 2018). ORACC text P238413.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238413). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 2018. The Correspondence of Assurbanipal, Part I: Letters from Assyria, Central Babylonia, and Vassal States. SAA 21. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa21/P238413/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.