VS 24, 101 (Bab. 18)

col. i'

i' 1'–3' (broken)

i' 4' [… …] rudder,                

i' 5' [… …his gate/house] in the dung,                      

i' 6' [. . . boat-tower, he who drags] clothes.              

i' 7' [… …]. of death(?)

i' 8' […in^?] his [cist]ern he was holding the water for her.

i' 9' [… … he/she] will recite for him the sealed document.

i' 10' [… …] plundered(?)

i' 11' [… …] the sealed document.

i' 12' [… …]  … may be your(f.) striker(?)

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i' 13'–15' (too broken)

col. ii'

ii' 1' (too broken)

ii' 2' The … of the temple of the lady …

ii' 3' Pray so that he will …

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ii' 4' Zarpanītu go[es down] to the garden. [She keeps calling the gardener:]

ii' 5' “Gardener, gardener, [you are] the chi[ef gardener of my city!”]

ii' 6' “Carry for me ma(k)sindû-wood (for?) the b[ed of my girlfriend . . . [. . .]”

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ii' 7' Bring down and drop (it)… The Lord of Babylon.

ii' 8' (The garden?) where the wild pigeons make a ne[st, where the turtledoves fill the bushes],

ii' 9' where the young of the ḫarbaqqan[nu-birds surround Bēl like a garland.]

ii' 9'–10' The needles(?) of cypress and juniper shower upon the Lord of Babylon.

ii' 11' Oh di[viner, in the midst of Ebiḫ, how did I issue to you (the divine) order?]

ii' 12' “In your auricles, in your ears, I whispered”].

ii' 2': The participle murrimtu (reading secure) is part. of arāmu-D. The meaning, however, of this otherwise unknown word, remains unclear to us.

ii' 6': See commentary to BM 40900+: ii 30.

ii' 9': CAD K 358c). Lexical lists equate the Ḫarbaqannu-bird with the urballu = šen.šen.bal^mušen “(a quail)” (CAD U 211, lex. sec.).

ii' 9'–10': CAD T 9, 11.

ii' 11': Restoring after K 6082: ii'12'–13': e ba-ru-ú ina libbi(šà) e-bé-eḫ ak-ka-a-a-i áš-kun-ka ṭe-e-mu ina šá pa-ḫu-ti-ka ina libbi(šà) uznī(geštuⁱⁱ)-ka ú-làḫ-ḫi-iš and BM 47032: 1: e ^lúḫal <ina> lìb-bi e-bi-iḫ a-⸢ka⸣-ʾ-i áš-kun-ka ṭè-⸢e⸣-mu.

ii' 12': Restoring after K 6082 ii'14': ina šá-pa-ḫu-ti-ka ina šà geštug^II-ka ú-làḫ-ḫi-iš. Note the variant BM 47032: 2: ina šá e-bi-iḫ-ti-iá ana šà geštug^II-ka ú-laḫ-ḫiš which is the lectio facilior, trying to resolve the difficult šá-pa-ḫu-ti-ka. The hapax legomena šapaḫūtu (CAD Š/1, 412) was not translated by Lambert (1959, 14 and 19; 1975, 118). Gabbay 2015, 211 n. 105 raised the possibility that it is derived from the verb šapû C, “to be silent”, i.e., ina šapaʾūtika?. The passages which describe cultic whispering in animals’ ears through a tube made of reed (e.g. ina ^gisag.kud gi dùg.ga én… ana šà geštu^II “You whisper the incantation (three times into the left) ear of (the horse) through a tube of sweet reed”, Gabbay 2015, 190–191) may shed light on the enigmatic šapaḫūtu. Next to uznu “ear”, and with the thematic parallels where a hearing implement is used, it makes sense that šapaḫūtu designates hollow, container-like organ, namely the ear canal, or the auricle. Possible cognates to this word would be Syriac שפכא “receptacle of a millstone” (Sokoloff 2009, 1588) and Mishnaic Heb. שפכה “urinary canal” – both designating a hollow, container-like organs.