SAA 18 181. Petitioning the King (ABL 0716)[via saao/saa18]

(1) To the king, my lord: your servant, Nabû-balassu-iqbi. May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! May Nabû, lord of the stylus, your god, make your reign as long-lasting as heaven and earth.

(5) Why is it that I have more than once petitioned the king, my lord, but nobody has questioned me, as if the name of the land of Akkad were not good in the eyes of the king, my lord, and as if I had sinned against the king, my lord?

(9) I have committed no crime against the king, my lord. Before the hostilities (began), I came and invoked the right to appeal to the king about Arrabu, saying, "I have a matter relevant to the palace." He did not fear (the king) but took away my property, (and) having arrested me, put me in custody.

(14) And now, when before all the people I have come and grasped the feet of the king, my lord, this very day I am humiliating myself unto death. The multitudes who are dead are at peace! Since last year nobody gives me food to eat. Hunger and thirst have befallen me. I go and drink water from a well; I wash my feet (there); and I go up to keep the watch of the king, my lord.

(23) Earlier on I wrote on a writing board which I sent king, my lord: "There are men hostile to me here. If they block my access to the king, and if they say evil words about me before the king, the king will kill me."

(r 1) There are two men who have taken gold against my life. They plot every day to kill and destroy me. If they have succeeded in making evil words about me reach the king, my lord, then the king, my lord, should know (this):

(r 5) Šarru-lu-dari has done two things that are untoward to the king, my lord. There is a royal edict, "Nobody may administer booty from the land of Akkad without my permission." He (and) the daughter of Babilayu, a member of the Reʾû family, have sinned more than all the lands against the king, my lord. I wrote (about him), but when he returned a field (of mine), he gave it to him(self).

(r 11) The king appointed a vizier and a chief judge in the land, saying: "Render true and just judgements in my land." One year [befor]e Šarru-lu-dari [was app]ointed as mayor, the chief judge decided my case. He requisitioned the people of my paternal estate as stolen property and gave them to me. When Šarru-lu-dari came, he overturned the judgement concerning me. Now my retainers serve an idle man, and I am dying of thirst.

(r 20) I argue with him, but he hurls against me twenty or thirty misdeeds which I have neither seen, nor heard, nor known from this household, (and) which he then repeats in arguing with me in the assembly of the servants of the [ki]ng, my lord.

(r 25) You, lord of kings, are Marduk1 whose fury is the Deluge (and) whose glance is a merciful father. Let them give (me) my property, as the chief judge decided, and the property of my paternal estate, so that I may serve the king there.