SAA 17 053. Rehabilitation as Royal Servant (Addressed to the Chief Eunuch) (ABL 0283)[via saao/saa17]
| Obverse | ||
| o 1o 1 | (1) To the chief eunuch, [my] lord, your servant Bel-ibni. May Nabû and Marduk bless my lord! | |
| o 22 | ||
| o 33 | (3) Initially, when I did not come to the audience of the king, there were men who came from Elam to see the king and who, in order to obtain intercession for themselves, libelled me in the palace. There was also a certain opponent of mine who said and wrote to the palace bad things about me from Elam. When I heard of this, I did not come, because I was afraid. Now (however), I have become desirous of serving the king. | |
| o 44 | ||
| o 55 | ||
| o 66 | ||
| o 77 | ||
| o 88 | ||
| o 99 | ||
| o 1010 | ||
| o 1111 | ||
| o 1212 | ||
| o 1313 | ||
| o 1414 | (14) All those who initially committed a crime have been forgiven by the king. (As to) all the libels that have been uttered against me in the palace, I am not guilty of any of them. Now, [shou]ld there be a misdemeanour of mine, [let my lord] speak for me to the king so that he will forgive me and [I can come and kiss the feet] of the king [and of my lord]. | |
| o 1515 | ||
| o 1616 | ||
| o 1717 | ||
| o 1818 | ||
| o 1919 | ||
| o 2020 | ||
| rest broken away | ||
| beginning broken away | ||
| Reverse | ||
| r 1'r 1' | [x x x a]-⸢di⸣ É i-šap-pa-ra | |
| r 2'2' | (r 2) May it not happen that by the command of the king they succeed in turning me out of the grace of the king, my lord! Let my lord make no mistake, and may nobody worsen my reputation in the palace! May it be stated by the mouth of the king, my lord, that I may not be denigrated in the palace of the king, my lord! On the contrary, may the king count me as one of his servants, may the mark of the kings' servitude be put on me, and I may not be slighted and humiliated in the eyes of my fellow Babylonians! | |
| r 3'3' | ||
| r 4'4' | ||
| r 5'5' | ||
| r 6'6' | ||
| r 7'7' | ||
| r 8'8' | ||
| r 9'9' | ||
| r 10'10' | ||
| r 11'11' | ||
| r 12'12' | (r 12) May I see just one single sign from the king, my lord, and may we get confident through it! Then we, myself, my brothers, my sons and my friends, shall come and kiss the feet of the king, our lord, and serve [the king, our lord]. | |
| r 13'13' | ||
| r 14'14' | ||
| r 15'15' | ||
| r 16'16' | ||
| r 17'17' | ||
| r 18'18' | (r 18) May my lord read whatever I [say] and speak for me [favoura]bly in the presence of the king. May I hear the well-being of the king, my lord, and rejoice! | |
| r 19'19' | ||
| Right | ||
| r.e. 20r.e. 20 | ||
| r.e. 2121 | šul*-mu šá LUGAL be-lí-⸢ia⸣ [o] | |
| r.e. 2222 | (r 22) I have grasped [the hand of the chief eunuch], my [lord]. May I not come to shame! | |
| Edge | ||
| e. 1e. 1 |
Adapted from Manfried Dietrich, The Neo-Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib (State Archives of Assyria, 17), 2003. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2009-11, as part of the AHRC-funded research project “Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th Century BC” (AH/F016581/1; University College London) directed by Karen Radner. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P237834/.