Reading akkadian PRayeRs & Hymns An Introduction

296
ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:
READING AKKADIAN PRAYERS AND HYMNS: AN INTRODUCTION
Marduk. Tzvi Abusch. “Marduk.” DDD, 543–49. R. Rittig. “Marduk. B.
Archäologisch.” RlA 7 (1987–1990), 372–74. W. G. Lambert. “Studies in
Marduk.” BSOAS 47 (1984), 1–9. T. Oshima. “Marduk, the Canal Digger.” JANES
30 (2006), 77–88. Walter Sommerfeld. Der Aufstieg Marduks: Die Stellung
Marduks in der babylonischen Religion des zweiten Jahrtausends v.Chr. AOAT 213.
Kevelaer: Butzon & Bercker / Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1982. Idem.
“Marduk. A. Philologisch. I. In Mesopotamien.” RlA 7 (1987–1990), 360–70.
Text. Edition: Werner R. Mayer. “Das Bußgebet an Marduk von BMS 11.” Or
n.s. 73 (2004), 198–214. Translations: Foster, 680–82. Seux, 169–72. von Soden,
298–300. Study: Joel Hunt. “The Hymnic Introduction of Selected Šuilla Prayers
Directed to Ea, Marduk, and Nabû.” Ph.D. Dissertation. Brandeis University,
1994, 87–143.
1. ÉN qar-ra-du d AMAR.UTU šá e-ziz-su a-bu-bu
2. nap-šur-šu a-bu re-mé-nu-ú
3. qa-bu-ú u la še-mu-ú id-dal-pan-ni
Line 1: ÉN = šiptu, “incantation, ritual wording.” This word marks the beginning of
the prayer but is not a part of the prayer itself. It may have been read as Sumerian rather
than Akkadian. The prayer opens with a very short hymnic introduction that invokes Marduk
with appropriate divine epithets. Qarrādu, “hero, warrior.” Qarrādu is a very common
epithet for male deities (see CAD Q, 141–42). d AMAR.UTU = Marduk. Ezēzu, “to be(come)
angry, furious.” Ezissu is a 3ms predicative plus 3ms (resumptive) pronominal suffix, which
literally means “his being angry,” that is, Marduk’s present state of rage. It is best rendered
by “his anger.” The pronominal suffix resumes the relative pronoun ša at the head of the
phrase (ša ezissu abūbu). Abūbu, “flood,” is often used metaphorically to characterize the
inexorable power of a deity’s anger, a king’s military actions, or either’s weapons (see CAD
A/1, 78–79).
šiptu: qarrādu Marduk ša ezissu abūbu
Line 2: Napšuru (N of pašāru), “to be released, to be reconciled to, to forgive.” Abu,
“father.” Rēmēnû, “merciful.” (Gula is called “merciful [rēmēnû] mother” on page 246.)
Abu, a positive image here, plays on the negative abūbu in line 1. The use of eziz and
napšur here at the beginning of the prayer recalls the second line in the opening hymn of
Ludlul bēl nēmeqi (see page 485): eziz mūši muppašir urri, “he is angry at night but relenting
at daybreak” (I 2). As mentioned by Hunt (89), it is significant that the merciful aspect of
Marduk’s character lies closest to the petitionary part of the prayer that follows.
napšuršu abu rēmēnû
Line 3: This line begins the complaint section of the prayer. Qabû, “to speak, to command,
to decree.” Lā, “not,” is the particle used to negate individual substantives. Šemû,