Reading akkadian PRayeRs & Hymns An Introduction

488
READING AKKADIAN PRAYERS AND HYMNS: AN INTRODUCTION
10. rit-tuš rab-ba-a-ti ú-kaš-šu mi-i-ta
11. d AMAR.UTU šá nak-bat qa-ti-šú la i-na-áš-šu-ú šá-ma-aʾ-ú
12. rab-ba-a-ti rit-ta-a-šú ú-kaš-šu mi-i-ta
13. šá i-na lib-ba-ti-šú up-ta-at-ta-a qab-ra-a-tum
Line 10: Rittu, “hand, palm.” The final vowel of the 3ms suffix has been elided. Compare
line 12. Rabbu (m), rabbatu (f), “soft, gentle.” Given the fact that two Assyrian MSS
read rabbat here (MSS AA and ff, partially restored), it is probably best to understand rabbati,
attested in two late Babylonian MSS (MSS gg and ii), as a 3fs predicative with a superfluous
vowel attached—not atypical in late manuscripts. Mītu means “dead.” “Dead” is
probably not to be understood here as the cessation of all bodily functions but as “moribund,
dying, as good as dead.” Kuššu (D of kâšu) is problematic. Formally, it is a 3ms durative
with subjunctive. Semantically, however, one can take it to mean “to help” (CDA’s
kiāšu; CAD’s kâšu B) or “to delay” (CDA’s kâšu; CAD’s kâšu A). If one accepts the latter
verb, one must take the phrase to mean “it delays (the death of) the dying” (see, e.g., CAD
K, 295). If one accepts the former verb, one faces the problem that the CAD offers no certain
attestations of this verb in the D stem (K, 295). This issue has been mollified slightly
by the fact that new material in Ludlul IV 26 (according to the line numbering of Annus
and Lenzi) does attest it in a broken line that occurs in a context of the sufferer recounting
his salvation: [ . . . ] ukaššu Zarpān[ītu], “whom Zarpanitu helps.” Given this attestation
and the fact that “help” or “rescue” makes contextual sense in line 10, this rendering
seems to be the most likely understanding of the verb (see likewise Foster, 395; George
and Al-Rawi, 194). Marduk, this line states, can also be tender and caring, rescuing those
destined for the grave.
rittuš rabbat(i) ukaššu mīta
Line 11: Lines 9–12 employ the Sumerian hymnic style by repeating a couplet, first
without the deity’s name and then with it. Unlike lines 1 and 3, which also employ this
literary form, the insertion of the deity’s name in line 11 does not replace a word in line 9.
This is the typical execution of the form.
Marduk ša nakbat qātīšu lā inaššû šamāʾū
Line 12: The line varies from its mate in line 10 in that the initial pair of words has
switched places. Notice also that the 3ms pronominal suffix on rittu shows its final vowel
in this line.
rabbat(i) rittušu ukaššu mīta
Line 13: Ina, “in, on, by, among, from,” is best understood here as “on account of.”
Libbātu, pl. “wrath, fury.” Putattû (Dt of petû), “to be opened.” Qabru, “grave.” The opening
(i.e., digging) of graves suggests the need to bury the dead, the apparent result of Marduk’s
anger.
ša ina libbātīšu uptattâ qabrātum