Šilejko 1924 pl. VIII // Dossin 1935, 182f. (Gods of the Night)

1        The princes have moved forward(?),

2        the bolts are lowered, rings set in place. (B: pegs and rings are laid down)

3        The noisy people are fallen silent,

4        gates (once) opened, are locked.

5        The gods of the land, goddesses of the land,

6        Šamaš, Sîn, Adad, and Ištar (B: Adad and Ea, Šamaš and Ištar)

7        have gone off into the “lap of heaven” .

8        They will give no judgment, they will decide no cases.

9        Veiled is the night.

10      The palace is quiet, the steppes are silent. (B: the palaces are quiet and)

11      The wayfarer calls out to the god, the petitioner keeps on sleeping. (B: prays to the god)

12      The judge of justice, father of the destitute, (B: father of truth)

13      Šamaš has gone off into his sanctuary.

14      May the great Gods of the Night,

15      resplendent Girra

16      warrior Erra,

17      the “Bow”, the “Yoke”, (B: “Bow”, Elamātum)

18      Orion, the “Dragon”, (B: Pleiades, Orion, “Dragon”)

19      the “Wagon”, the “She-Goat”,

20      the “Bison”, the “Horned-Serpent” (B: and “Bison”)

20a    (B: the great(!) gods of the night)

21      stand by! (B: stand by me)

22      In the extispicy which I am performing,

23      in the lamb which I am offering, (B: (in) the offerings which I am offering)

24      place for me the truth! (B: place the truth)

25      24 are its lines, a prayer of the night. (B: 24, prayer of the night).

1: For pullulū see the discussion in Wilcke 2007, 226 n. 63 (M. P. Streck).

         2:  For tabkā in B cf. perhaps ḫargallūšu ittabbakū ACh Adad 19: 36, translated by CAD T 9b „the lock... will fall down“, by AHw. 325a „werden hingeschüttet“ (M. Stockhusen).

         5: Text A presents i-li instead of ilū. Note also the spelling i-li-i in line 14 of text A. A construct state nominative plural in -ī is also rarely attested elsewhere in Old Babylonian, e. g., AbB 4, 94: 11, 13; VAB 5, 287: 5; VS 29, 2: 1–5; YOS 10, 24: 10; ARM 28, 120: 2–5 (M. P. Streck).

         7: For utul šamê see Heimpel 1986, 130–132, Horowitz/Wasserman 1996, 59, Horowitz 1998, 250–252 and Steinkeller 2005, 19f. (M. Stockhusen). Wilcke 2007, 226 with n. 71, prefers utūl šamê “im Himmel zu schlafen” (M. P. Streck).

         9 (text A): mušītim instead of mušītum (cf. text B l. 10) is a mistake, perhaps triggered by awātim in the preceding line (M. P. Streck).

         10–15: Wilcke 2007, 225f. reads ṣīrū “die Erhabenen”; cf. his discussion on p. 226f. n. 75. However, since the SB version of the prayer in OECT 6, 12: 8 has ṣe-e-ru and ṣīrum is never written with a plene e I prefer a plural of ṣērum “steppe” (M. P. Streck).

         11: Wilcke 2007, 225, by mistake has be instead of bé. He translates “hungert nach Schlaf” (p. 226) and supposes a hitherto not clearly attested meaning “to starve” of the Št₂ and a construction of the verb with an adverbial accusative to denote the object of starving (Wilcke 2007, 227 n. 77) (M. P. Streck).

         15–20: For the sequence of stars enumerated in these lines compare the third Old Babylonian ikrib mušītim (CBS 574, lines 12–14) from Sippar (Horowitz/Wasserman 1996, 60 and Steinkeller 2005, 38f.). The astral identity of the OB constellations Girra and Erra is still uncertain. For the independent constellation Elamātum see Walker 1983, 145–147. šitadallum/šitaddarum is the Akkadian name of the Sumerian constellation ^mulSIPA.ZI.AN.NA “The True Shepherd of Heaven” (modern Orion; cf. Koch 1989, 116–119 and Horowitz 2000, 198) (M. Stockhusen).

         17: Wilcke 2007, 225, by mistake has qa instead of qá (M. P. Streck).

         20: “gods of the great night” (text B) instead of “great gods of the night” is a mistake (cf. text A l. 14) M. P. Streck).