Position in chronology
SAA 17 158. Shooting Arrows at the Wall of the Temple (ABL 1339)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) [Your servant] Marduk-apla-iddina: I would gladly die for [the king], my [lord]! Say to the king, my lord: (3) [As to what the king] wrote: "When you sent your soldiers (and) they penetrated into the inner city, they covered the temple wall with arrows" — (6) My soldiers gave one another the following orders: "Nobody may wound anybody, and the herald may not call up anybody!" Did they not give (such) orders to one another for fear of the name of God (lit., 'gods')? Why should we [be] against the people, and why should there be an arrow on the temple wall? (11) My men, who attacked and…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[ARAD-ka m]dAMAR.UTU—DUMU.UŠ—SUM-na a-na di-na-an / [LUGAL be-lí]-ia lul-lik um-ma-a a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia-a-ma / [šá LUGAL] iš-pu-ra um-ma ERIM-MEŠ-ka ki-i taš-pu-ru / ni-ka-si a-na ŠÀ-bi URU ki-i ú-nak-ki-su / šil-ta-ḫu É.SIG₄ É—DINGIR-MEŠ un-del-lu-ú / ERIM-MEŠ-ia šá ṭè-e-ma a-ḫa-meš iš-ku-nu um-ma mam-ma / mam-ma la i-maḫ-ḫaṣ ù NÍGIR mam-ma la i-de-ek-ku / ul a-na MU-⸢i⸣ šá DINGIR-MEŠ…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P238713.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238713). source
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/P238713/.
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