« Quotation of the Birthday Day
Main
Let's All Meet At Ethical Realism »
August 22, 2009
Micromanaging The Gods
While working on Akkadian prayers, I often come across things that strike me as odder than the general oddity. These folks wanted to make sure that their gods looked after them in an expeditious manner and they weren't above giving them rather specific instructions. A prayer to Shamash has this helpful request,
Judge my case. Provide my verdict. Until you allow my case to come to a verdict, [do no]t deliver [a verdict(?)] in a[nother] case. [ ] after you have let my case come to a verdict [ ].
Based the sign fragments at the beginning and end of the first lacuna and a very similar expression in another prayer, the restoration is all but certain. What appears as three restored lacunae in the translation is only one in the Akkadian. As always, it would be nice to know what the other two unrestorable lacunae said. The text that unquestionably reads . . . dīnim šanīmma lā . . ., ". . . another case do not . . ." is a prayer to Nusku where we see the same desire to prioritize the work of a god,
Until you provide mercy in my case, do not go to another case.
What with so many people making demands on them, I'm sure the gods always had problems with priorities and were happy for the help.
While there are echoes of this sort of thing in a few Hebrew prayers like the Psalm 42-43, specifically Psalm 43:1, I can't find anything quite this blatant in a Hebrew Bible. And even where one does find such echoes the context is quite different. These Akkadian prayers assume ominous portents. At least on the surface, the Hebrew prayers do not.
One might also note as an aside שלח אורך, "send out you light" in Psalm 43:3. Not that too much should be made of such an expression but the Shamash prayer has this rather stock epithet "bringer of light for humanity."
For those who care, the Shamash prayer is VAT 8242 (BAM 323):19-35 plus K.2132, specifically VAT 8242: 32-33. The Nusku prayer is KAR 58 v. 1-17, specifically line 6. The translations are mine.
Posted by Duane Smith at August 22, 2009 3:07 PM | Read more on Akkadian |
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telecomtally.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2983
Comments
Post a comment
Please read Abnormal Interest's Comments Policy.