Nebuchadnezzar II 118
| Obverse | ||
| Column i | ||
| i 1i 1 | (i 1) Nebuchadnezzar (II), the king of justice who is the bright light of his land, the one who loves truth and justice, the one who constantly seeks out the shrines of the great gods, the one who provides for Esagil and Ezida, son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, am I. | |
| i 22 | ||
| i 33 | ||
| i 44 | ||
| i 55 | ||
| i 66 | ||
| i 77 | ||
| i 88 | ||
| i 99 | ||
| i 1010 | (i 10) When the god Marduk, the great lord, the wisest of the gods, the one who directs the (four) quarters (of the world), with his plentiful countenance and his bright features, (and) with his broad glance, which is like the god Šamaš who observes everything, looked upon me with pleasure and raised up my head, he gave me an exalted name to rule over the land. Then, he (Marduk) gave me a widespread people to shepherd. | |
| i 1111 | ||
| i 1212 | ||
| i 1313 | ||
| i 1414 | ||
| i 1515 | ||
| i 1616 | ||
| i 1717 | ||
| i 1818 | ||
| i 1919 | ||
| i 2020 | ||
| i 2121 | ||
| i 2222 | ||
| i 2323 | (i 23) To provide for the cult centers and renovate sanctuaries, make rites secure, and ensure that their purification rites are carried out correctly, (by) his venerable command, he magnificently commissioned me and (thus) I returned the original rites and primordial rites of the goddess Ištar of Uruk, the holy lady of Uruk, (back) to their (original) place(s). I returned the šēdu to Uruk (and) the lamassu of goodness to Eanna. | |
| i 2424 | ||
| i 2525 | ||
| i 2626 | ||
| i 2727 | ||
| Column ii | ||
| ii 1ii 1 | ||
| ii 22 | ||
| ii 33 | ||
| ii 44 | ||
| ii 55 | ||
| ii 66 | ||
| ii 77 | ||
| ii 88 | ||
| ii 99 | ||
| ii 1010 | (ii 10) At that time, (with regard to) Eanna, the temple of the goddess Ištar of Uruk, which, before the time I had opened up its foundation(s), its plan had been destroyed: I examined (and) checked its original foundation(s) and (then) firmly placed its (new) foundations on top of the original foundation(s). | |
| ii 1111 | ||
| ii 1212 | ||
| ii 1313 | ||
| ii 1414 | ||
| ii 1515 | ||
| ii 1616 | ||
| ii 1717 | ||
| ii 1818 | ||
| ii 1919 | (ii 19) Using bitumen and baked brick, I had the temple built as (it had been) in ancient times, (together with its) cellas, the seats of the goddesses Ištar of Uruk and Nanāya. I built the entire temple with mud and (unbaked) brick, as (it had been) in ancient times. | |
| ii 2020 | ||
| ii 2121 | ||
| ii 2222 | ||
| ii 2323 | ||
| ii 2424 | ||
| ii 2525 | ||
| ii 2626 | ||
| ii 2727 | ||
| ii 2828 | ||
| ii 2929 | ||
| ii 3030 | (ii 30) For the goddess Ištar of Uruk, the exalted princess, I built anew Eanna, the consecrated temple, the šutummu, the place where she resides. | |
| ii 3131 | ||
| ii 3232 | ||
| ii 3333 | ||
| ii 3434 | ||
| Column iii | ||
| iii 1iii 1 | (iii 1) O Ištar of Uruk, exalted princess, when you enter Eanna, the temple where you reside, during joyous celebrations, look upon my fine handiwork with pleasure and may good things about me be set upon your lips. | |
| iii 22 | ||
| iii 33 | ||
| iii 44 | ||
| iii 55 | ||
| iii 66 | ||
| iii 77 | ||
| iii 88 | ||
| iii 99 | ||
| iii 1010 | ||
| iii 1111 | ||
| iii 1212 | (iii 12) Give me as a gift a life of long days, the attainment of very old age, a firmly-secured throne, and a long-lasting reign. | |
| iii 1313 | ||
| iii 1414 | ||
| iii 1515 | ||
| iii 1616 | ||
| iii 1717 | ||
| iii 1818 | ||
| iii 1919 | (iii 19) Whenever (there are) battle and war, O Ištar, be the protection of my troops (and) march at my side so that (I may) kill my enemies. | |
| iii 2020 | ||
| iii 2121 | ||
| iii 2222 | ||
| iii 2323 | ||
| iii 2424 | (iii 24) O Nanāya, eternal lady of the gods, pre-eminent one of Eanna, make my deeds find acceptance in the presence of the god Nabû, the triumphant heir, your beloved husband, (and) speak good (words) about me. | |
| iii 2525 | ||
| iii 2626 | ||
| iii 2727 | ||
| iii 2828 | ||
| iii 2929 | ||
| iii 3030 | ||
| iii 3131 | ||
| iii 3232 | ||
| iii 3333 |
1nu-ri*-im na-am-ra ša ma-ti-šu “the bright light of his land”: The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668–ca. 631) is also referred to as a “bright light.” See Mitto and Novotny, SAAB 27 (2021) pp. 136 and 150 (line 28´).
2See the on-page note to Nbk. 108 (C31) i 5–6.
3⸢pa⸣-ar-ṣí-im re-e-eš-⸢ta⸣-ti ù pel-lu-de-e qú-ud-mu-ti “the original rites and primordial rites”: Compare Nbk. 19 (C34) ii 50–51, which has sì-ma-a-ti re-eš-ta-a-ti pel-lu-de-e qú-ud-mu-ú-tim, “the original appurtenances (and) primordial rites.”
4su-uḫ-ḫa-tu iṣ-ra-as-su “its plan had been destroyed”: For further details, see Da Riva and Novotny, IOS Annual 22 (2022) pp. 17–18.
5a-ḫi-iṭ ab-re-e-ma “I examined (and) checked”: This two-word combination is attested eleven other times in the Nebuchadnezzar II corpus. It is attested once in Nabopolassar’s inscriptions, once in Neriglissar’s texts, and twice in Nabonidus’ inscriptions.
6in ṭi-iṭ-ṭam ù li-bi-it-ti “with mud and (unbaked) brick”: The building materials ṭīdu (“mud) and libittu (“mud brick”) are also mentioned together in Novotny and Weiershäuser, RINBE 1/1 p. 49 Npl. 6 (C31) iii 2 (SIG₄.SIG₄ ù ṭi-iṭ-ṭam). At the present time, ṭīdu is mentioned only mentioned in two Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions: In this inscription and the aforementioned text of Nebuchadnezzar II’s father.
7É qú-ud-du-šu šu-tu-um-mu na-ar-mi-ša “the consecrated temple, the šutummu, the place where she resides”: The words quddušu (“consecrated”) and šutummu are currently not otherwise attested in Neo-Babylonian inscriptions, because they seem to be literary-religious epithets of Eanna and, thus, very few extant inscriptions refer to this temple in these terms. For further information, see Da Riva and Novotny, IOS Annual 22 (2022) p. 19.
Created by Frauke Weiershäuser and Jamie Novotny, 2015-25, for the Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), a corpus-building initiative funded by LMU Munich, the Henkel Foundation, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (through the establishment of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East), and and based at the Historisches Seminar - Abteilung Alte Geschichte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. At the present time, there is no stable, citable URL for this text and, therefore, the RINBE team kindly requests that this edition be cited as "RIBo Nebuchadnezzar II BLMJ Cly".