RA 86, 81 (Marduk)

obv.

1        Of the king of all Igigū-gods, the lord of the mountains,

2        the sovereign of the Enunakū-gods, Marduk, let me sing.

 

3        Let me plead with the leader, the merciless storm, the shade of the heaven,

4        who swiftly sends forth the storms, the seven winds, who conquers his evil enemies.

 

5        A blazing (fire), he overwhelms, a consuming flame, he sticked in the heart.

6        The god of power, strong, lord of the war, … the four winds, the storms.

 

7        His right hand holds the entire collection of divine numina …

8        At his (Marduks) anger, the bird of the land of the disobedient wastes away in the trap.

 

9        In the pure subterranean sea, he is Asalluḫi. Above, in the heaven, his name is An.

10      All (divine numina) are placed in front of him. Marduk is the pleasant Tutu.

 

11      The divine plans are filled in his hand.

12      He crushed the raging mountains. He is perfect.

 

13      He frightens the land of the disobedient. He captures the enemies.

14      Imposed are his weapons. He has no opponent.

 

15      … provider, Mutiabal.

16      … day/storm … day/storm …

General: The text was dated by Oshima 2011, 191 to the OB period, more exactly to the reign of Samsuiluna, a date which is supported by the paleography, orthography and grammar of the text. However, the following commentary lists numerous arguments for a later, lexically modernized copy of an OB text, see ll. 3, 5, 6, 8, 12. A late copy could also explain the many mistakes of the text, probably resulting from an unsufficient understanding of the scribe and/or a bad Vorlage. – Oshima 2011, 192f. divides the first eight lines into couplets but groups ll. 9–11 and 12–14 together, obviously for reasons of contents. Note, however, that also the couplet ll. 7–8 consists of two lines of different content. Therefore, I divide the text into distichs throughout.

3: One expects luzmur at the beginning of the line. – The logogram RA for raḫāṣu is unexpected in an OB text and points to a later copy of an OB original. For Marduk as merciless storm see CAD P 7 s. v. pādû c.

4: Oshima 2011, 192f. reads a-a-bi šu-nu-ti lem-ni “these enemies, the evildoers”. However, the enemies are not mentioned earlier in the text, and instead of lemni one expects lemnūti. Perhaps the scribe first omitted lem and later added it after ti, together with a faulty ni.

5: Oshima 2011, 192f. reads kippu “snare” which is, however, never attested in the combination with akālu. kibbu is a rare word only attested in SB. – At the end of the line, Oshima 2011, 192f. reads a-ki-lu-ú ša ni-iš ŠÀ “(which) consume the desire (of the enemy)”, difficult for the plene spelling a-ki-lu-ú (obviously analysed by Oshima as pl.) and for he expression ša nīš libbi instead of nīš libbi. Again, the verb š/sanāšu is only known from SB and NA texts. Admittedly, the verb  is never connected with the object libbu.

6: As already noted by Oshima 2011, 195, the word kiššūtu is not yet attested in the OB period. – At the end of the line, Oshima 2011, 192f.  reads me-ḫe-[e] ⌈ir⌉?-⌈ta⌉?-[ši] “he has received … the storms” which does not fit the sign rests and does not yield a good sense.

7: I take imnetašu as a literary form instead of imittašu (noun pattern PiRSet instead of PiRiSt) and as subject of ukāl whereas Oshima 2011, 193 translates “he holds in his right (hand)” which should be ina imittišu. – The copy in Al-Rawi 1992, 81 shows another two signs after ukāl.

8: Oshima 2011, 192 reads uz-zi-su₁. See also l. 11. – Oshima 2011, 193 translates “disobedient land”, but māt lā māgirī is a genitive construction. – kamarru/kamāru is only attested in SB, see CAD K 111 kamāru.

10:  Oshima 2011, 192f. translates “the ple[asa]nt(?) day/storm(?) of Tutu(?)” which is difficult because of the nominative ṭābu.

11: Oshima 2011, 192 reads qá-ti-iš-su₁. Cf. l. 8.

12: The D-stem of paʾāṣu is only attested in SB/NA texts.

13: For māt lā māgirī cf. the commentary to l. 8.