SAA 04 115. Fragment of a Military Query (PRT 039) [military and political]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P240300

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 4

High confidence

(Beginning destroyed) (1) [... will they at]tack (him), and [kill (and) plunder (him)]? [Will Esarhaddon], king of Assyria, be troubled and [angry]? (3) [Will he who can see, see it? Will he who can hear], hear it? Does your great divinity [know it]? (4) [Disregard that an angry man, or one in dis]tress, [spoke] angrily the words of his report. (5) [Disregard that enemies sit in am]bush [on his right and left]. (Rest destroyed)

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

Transliteration

[i-ma]-⸢qu-tu-ú 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-e DINGIR-ut-ka GAL-[ti ZU-e] / [e-zib šá šab-su ra-aʾ-bu uš]-šú-šú a-mat ṭè-mi-šú ir-⸢ʾu-bu⸣ [id-bu-bu] / [e-zib šá KÚR 15-šú u 150-šú ina DAG-MEŠ] ⸢táḫ⸣-sa-a-⸢ti⸣ [áš-bu-ma]

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 P240300.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P240300). 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/P240300/.

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