SAA 18 001. Dressing down the ‘Non-Babylonians’ (ABL 0403)[via saao/saa18]


Obverse
o 1o 1	[a]-mat LUGAL	(1) [The wo]rd of the king to the non-Babylonians. I am [w]ell.
o 22	a-na la LÚ.TIN.TIR.KI-MEŠ
o 33	⸢DI⸣-mu a-a-ši
o 44	ina tel-te šá KA UN-MEŠ šá-ki-in	(4) It is said in a popular proverb: "The potter's dog, having entered the kiln, will bark at the potter."
o 55	um-ma UR.KU šá LÚ.DUG.QA.BUR
o 66	ina ŠÀ UDUN ki-i i-ru-bu
o 77	a-na ŠÀ LÚ.DUG.QA.BUR ú-nam-bàḫ
o 88	en-na at-tu-nu ki-i la KA DINGIR-ma	(8) Now you have godlessly made yourselves into citizens of Babylon, and have raised against my servants all kinds of claims that you and your lord have been making up.
o 99	ra-man-ku-nu a-na LÚ.TIN.TIR.KI-MEŠ
o 1010	tu-ut-te-ra ù dib-bi la dib-bi
o 1111	šá at-tu-nu u EN-ku-nu te-tep-pu-šá
o 1212	a-na UGU ARAD-MEŠ-ía šak-na-tu-nu
o 1313	i-na tel-tim-ma šá KA šá-ki-in	(13) In yet another popular proverb it is said: "The words of a sinful woman have more weight at the door of the judge's house than her husband's."
o 1414	um-ma MÍ ḫa-ṭi-tú ina KÁ É—LÚ.DI.KUD
o 1515	KA-šá al-la šá DAM-šá da-an
o 1616	ṭup-pu TU₁₅-MEŠ ù me-ḫa-na-ti-ku-nu	(16) I am herewith sending back to you, with its seals intact, your completely pointless letter that you sent to me. Perhaps you will say: "Why did he return it to us?"
o 1717	šá taš-pu-ra-a-ni ina NA₄.KIŠIB-MEŠ-šá
o 1818	ki-i ú-te-ru ul-te-bil-ak-ku-nu-ši
o 1919	mìn-de-e-ma ta-qab-ba-a
o 2020	um-ma mì-na-a ú-tir-ra-an-na-ši
o 2121	ul-tu LÚ.TIN.TIR.KI-MEŠ	(21) When the citizens of Babylon, who are my servants and love me, wrote to me, I opened (their letter) and read it. Now, would it be good (that) I should [accept and] read (a letter) from the hand of criminals who [...] the god?
Reverse
r 1r 1	ARAD-MEŠ-ía ù ra-im-a-ni-ia
r 22	iš-pa-ru-u-ni ki-i ap-tu-u al-ta-ši
r 33	en-na DÙG.GA-at ina re-e-⸢te EN^*⸣-MEŠ—ḫi-iṭ-ṭi
r 44	šá DINGIR [x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ lul-si-i
r 55	[x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ ina ŠÀ-bi	(r 5) [......] there
r 66	[x x x x x x x x ina] UGU EN-ku-nu1	(r 6) [...... ab]out your lord
r 77	[x x x x x x x x x x]-⸢ka^?⸣ ka-ṣa-a-ma	(r 7) [......] are cold and
		(Break)
r 88	[x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣
r 99	[x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣
r 1010	[x x x x x x x x x x]-te
r 1111	[x x x x x x x x x x]-tú
r 1212	[x x x x x x x x x x il]-tak-nu	(r 12) [......] have [pl]aced
r 1313	[x x x x x x x x x x lul^?]-si-i-ma	(r 13) [...... I will] read
r 1414	[x x x x x x x x x x x]-⸢ku⸣-nu-ši
r 1515	[x x x x x x x x x x x x]-na-a
r 1616	[x x x x x x x x x x x x]-ru
r 1717	[x x x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣
r 1818	[x x x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣
		(Rest destroyed)

1Alternatively, a-na] UGU

Adapted from Frances Reynolds, The Babylonian Correspondence of Esarhaddon and Letters to Assurbanipal and Sin-šarru-iškun from Northern and Central Babylonia (State Archives of Assyria, 18), 2003. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2015-16, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P334274/.