TIM 9, 65 // TIM 9, 66a

1         I seized the mouth of all snakes, even the Kurṣindu-snake,

2         The snake that cannot be conjured, the Aš(šu)nugallu-snake, the Burubalû-snake,

3         The (Šan)apšaḫuru-snake, of spackled eyes,

4         The eel snake, the hissing snake, (even) the hisser, the snake at the window.

5         It entered the hole, went out by the drainpipe,

6         It smote the sleeping gazelle, betook itself to(?) the withered oak.

7         The snake lies coiled in the roof beams,

8         The serpent lies coiled in the rushes;

9         Six are the mouth of the serpent, seven his tongues,

10       Seven, indeed (lit.: and) seven went out, whatever is inside of it,

11       He is wild of hair, fearful of appearance,

12       His eyes are of awful brightness, fearfulness issues from his mouth;

13       His very spittle can split stone!

14       Incantation formula.

The translation follows that of Finkel 1999, unless otherwise stated. For the relation of these incantations to lexical lists see Wasserman 2002, 5–9 (in Hebrew).

A2:      A snake designated as one "that cannot be conjured", is mentioned in Jer. 8: 17 and Ps. 58: 4 (cf. Wasserman 2002, 10).

A6=B10:        For the motive of the sleeping gazelle, cf. Finkel 1999, 227, Wasserman 2002, 9–10, and Kogan 2004 (not aware of Wasserman 2002).

A10=B20:       [ú-ṣ]ú? mi-ma ša li-b[i-šu] is read by Finkel (1999, 226) as [ú-l]u-mi-ma ša li-b[i-šu]. The supposed lemma *ulumīmu is not translated and is "without independent support" (commentary ad l.). In view of this it seems preferable to read sibit u sibit uṣû(sic) mimma ša libbišu, "seven indeed (lit.: and) seven (tongues) went out, whatever is inside of it (the snake's mouths)".

A7=B12:       uš-te-el-qí with AHw 545 (leqû-Š). Note that the early suggestion of CAD A/1 354,1a to take uštelqi for ušterqi, was not repeated in CAD R, 175, s.v. raqû, "to hide, to remove (oneself)", nor in CAD R, 268, s.v. rêqu III, "to remove". Doubts regarding this suggestion were raised already by Finkel (1999, 227).

A7=B13:      i-na ši-pí-im // i-na ši-ip-pí: with AHw 1247 s.v. šīpu(m) II, "ein Balken an Gebäuden", see also Finkel 1999, 228.

B16:          The copyist mistake i-{na}-ra-bi-iṣ ba-aš-mu was triggered by i-na šu-pa-tim which precedes.

A9=B17:      ša ba-aš-mi-im ši-ši-it pí-šu si-b[i-it li-ša-nu-šu]: not a common example of anticipatory genitive in OB literary texts. This syntactic construction is attested more often in late, post-OB literary texts.

B 29–35: This duplicate continues with an incantation in an unidentified language (Elamite?) against scorpions (l. 35: ša zu-qí-qí-pí)