Reading akkadian PRayeRs & Hymns An Introduction

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READING AKKADIAN PRAYERS AND HYMNS: AN INTRODUCTION
Line 17 of Nisaba 1 concludes with the speaker’s offer to proclaim the goddess’s
great achievements, an offer that fits the form often described as a concluding
“promise/vow of praise.” In the ancient Near East praise was conceived
primarily as public narration, likely accompanied by celebration, in which the
speaker attested to specific experiences of divine favor by which the deity had
confirmed his or her responsiveness and power. 8 This conception is reflected in
the Hebrew Bible. Biblical scholars classify roughly a third of the biblical psalms
as having a literary form known as the individual lament, whose description has
been heavily influenced by the structure of incantation-prayers (see page 61).
Like incantation-prayers, the individual lament follows petition with a vow of
praise. However, among the biblical psalms, such a structure rarely occurs in a
simple linear way. In Psalm 9:14–15, for example, the speaker’s petition for
mercy is followed by a promise to praise the deity in public: 9 “so that I may recount
all your praises, and, in the gates of daughter Zion, rejoice in your deliverance.”
Yet, verse twenty of the same psalm voices another petition: “Rise up, O
LORD! Do not let mortals prevail.”
8 See, e.g., the poem Ludlul bēl nēmeqi, especially the opening hymn (page 483) and Tablet IV.
9 Both the verb used here (רפס piel, “to recount”) and the location of the speaker suggest a pub-
lic performance.
TRANSLATION:
1. Incantation. O Nisaba, merciful queen,
2. The one who creates god, king, and human,
3. Net against the Anunnakki, the furious gods,
4. Who makes the angry god (and) the angry goddess relent,
5. I want to send you to my angry god, to my angry goddess,
6. Whose hearts are wrathful, furious and angry with me.
7. Reconcile to me (my) angry god (and my) angry goddess!
8. I, Shamash-shum-ukin, a son of his god,
9. Whose god is Marduk and whose goddess is Zarpanitu,
10. As a result of the evil (announced by) inauspicious, not good signs (and)
portents,
11. That occurred in my palace and my land,
〈Am afraid, anxious, and panicked.〉
12. May their evil towards me and my palace
13. Not approach, not come near, not come close, not reach me!
14. May my offenses be released, may my crimes be taken away!
15. May my (cultic) mistakes be forgotten, may my sin be absolved, may my
(magical) constraint be released!