SAA 04 032. Esarhaddon and Dur-Illil (AGS 020) [military and political]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P240128

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 4

High confidence

(Beginning destroyed) (2) [......]... Will they mount [a dangerous attack on ......], (and) ki[ll and plunder (them)]? (3) [Will Esarhaddo]n, king of Assyria, be troub[led and angry]? (4) [Will he who can see, see it? Will he who can hear, hea]r it? Does yo[ur] great divinity [know it]? (5) [Disregard that the subject of this query, Esarhaddo]n, king of Assyria, [is going] to Dur-Illil. (6) [Disregard that] enemies lie in ambush [at his right and left] and he will be passing through [enemy ambushes]. (7) [Disregard the (formulation) of today's cas]e, be it good, be it faulty, (and that) a…

State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Transliteration

[x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ GAR*-MEŠ i-⸢duk⸣-[ku-ú i-ḫab-ba-tu-ú] / [ŠÀ-bi šá mAN.ŠÁR—ŠEŠ—SUM]-⸢na⸣ LUGAL KUR—AN.ŠÁR i-mar-⸢ra⸣-[ṣu i-lam-mì-ni] / [IGI-ru IGI-ra ŠE.GA-ú ŠE.GA]-e DINGIR-ut-⸢ka⸣ GAL-[ti ZU-e] / [e-zib šá EN—MU.MU NE-i mAN.ŠÁR—ŠEŠ—SUM]-⸢na⸣ LUGAL KUR—AN.ŠÁR a-na BÀD—dEN.LÍL [il-la-ku] / [e-zib šá KÚR 15-šú u 150-šú i-na DAG]-MEŠ…

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 P240128.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P240128). source
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/P240128/.

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