YOS 11, 69c

Rev.

9'  The whispering, the whispering-ones(f.).

10' She has brought to me. Whispering, the whispering-ones.

11' My milking cows!

12' Let me... let me ... life!

13' ... cow(?), whispering-ones.

14' Nin-girim... cow(?), whispering-ones.

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15' Incantation against the maškadum-disease.

General: An incantation dealing with the maškadum-disease which attacks milking cows. The text is mostly obscure, perhaps including Amorite words.

9': la-ḫa-sú-um la-aḫ-si-a-tum: as Cavigneaux/Al-Rawi (2002, 10–11) so do we take this line to be based on the root laḫāsum, a by-form of laḫāšum. It is unclear whether la-ḫa-sú-um is an infinitive laḫāsum, "to whisper" or a noun laḫḫāsum, "the whispering-one". The second lemma, la-aḫ-si-a-tum, is a f. pl. of an unattested m. laḫš/sûm,

9'–10': The repetition in these two lines is not uncommon in OB incantations, cf., e.g., YOS 11, 67: 5–6; YOS 11, 17: 1–4; YOS 11, 19b: 18–22. Such rhythmic repetitions, with minor alternation between the first and the second components, are often found at the beginning of the incantation, as in e.g. ZA 71c: 13: da-mu-um da-ma-nu-um.

10': tu-ub-la <la?>-ḫa-sú-um la-aḫ-si-a-tum: tubla is taken as 3. sg. f. form of wabālum (– referring perhaps to a female cow?).

11’: ḫa-li-ba-tum is understood as ḫalībātum, pl. f. form of the unattested substantivized adj. ḫalībum, "giving milk?", derived from ḫalābum, "to milk", so far attested only in NA. Since, as AHw 309b suggests, the verb ḫalābum is a denominative of West-Semitic noun ḫala/īb, "milk", it is very likely that this incantation borrows from the Amorite lexicon (so also Cavigneaux/Al-Rawi 2002, 11).

12’: The line seems to contain two precative forms that cannot be deciphered. At the end, perhaps, balāṭum(TI). Cavigneaux/Al-Rawi read, without trans.: lu-uš ka-x-ni lu-uš ku-ul-ti.

13’: The line remains obscure: lu!-la-a-ba perhaps another precative from of labûm, "to howl, growl"? and li-it? perhaps a form of lītum, "cow"? Cavigneaux/Al-Rawi read: ku-la-a-ba x li-da la-aḫ-si-a-tum, "un petit chien(?); enfantez(?), vous les enchantées(?)...".