Nergal rules the underworld and the battlefield together. His name was understood as "lord of the great city" — the city being the land of the dead. His star is Mars; his temple is the Meslam in Cutha, from which he is also called Meslamtaʾea, "the one who comes forth from the Meslam." His parents are Enlil and Ninlil of Nippur. He governs both the dead in the earth below and the planet above, moving between heaven and the netherworld as no other god does. He is destroyer and sovereign both.

A shuilla is a "lifted-hand" prayer. The hands were raised open to receive the god's gaze as the words were spoken. This prayer follows the classic three-part structure of the genre: hymnic praise of the god's nature and power (lines 1–10); the supplicant's self-presentation, description of suffering, and approach to the god (lines 11–18); and petitions with a closing promise of praise (lines 19–24).

The prayer is notable for its formal artistry. The hymnic introduction is built from three interlocking stanzas — the first chiastic, the second parallelistic, the third connective — moving from the world of the gods to the world of humans. The four lines of approach (15–18) form a paired series: "because you are X, I have done Y," each approach-verb tracing a physical drawing-near — turning toward the god, seeking him, standing before him, looking at his face.

Two manuscripts contain royal insertions in place of the generic self-presentation: MS B names Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria (668–627 BCE), presenting himself in the context of a lunar eclipse. MS G names Shamash-shum-ukin, king of Babylon (667–648 BCE), presenting himself in the context of ill-boding omens — the same king and formula also found in a companion prayer to Nisaba. Both insertions are included here.

This is a Good Works Translation from Standard Babylonian Akkadian, produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church with AI assistance.

O mighty lord, high-honored son of Nunamnir,
foremost of the Anunnakki, master of battle,
born of Kutushar, the great queen —
Nergal, all-powerful among the gods, beloved of Ninmenna.

You blaze in the bright heavens, your station stands high;
in the netherworld you are great — without rival.
With Ea in the council of the gods your counsel stands foremost;
with Sin in the heavens you survey the whole.

Enlil your father gave you the black-headed ones, all the living,
and the herds of Šakkan, the wild things — entrusted them into your hands.

I, [name], son of [name], your servant:

The following lines appear in MS B, a tablet written for Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria (668–627 BCE). They replace the generic self-presentation, introducing the king by name alongside the "eclipse formula" (attalû).

I, Ashurbanipal, your servant —
on account of the evil of the lunar eclipse that occurred
in month [so-and-so] and day [so-and-so],
and on account of the evil of unfavorable, ill-boding signs and portents
that have appeared in my palace and my land . . .

The following lines appear in MS G, written for Shamash-shum-ukin, king of Babylon (667–648 BCE), the same royal formula found in Nisaba 1.

I, Shamash-shum-ukin, son of his god,
whose god is Marduk, whose goddess is Zarpanitu —
on account of the evil of signs and portents, ill-boding and unfavorable,
that have struck my palace and my land:
I am afraid, I am anxious, I am constantly in fear.
May their evil toward my house and my land
not come near, not approach, not draw close, not reach me.

The wrath of god and goddess has come upon me;
loss and ruin have fallen upon my house;
speaking without being heard robs me of sleep.

Because you are gracious, my lord Nergal, I have turned toward your godhead;
because you are compassionate, I have sought you out;
because you are merciful, I have stood before you;
because you look with favor, I have raised my face to yours.

Truly look upon me, and hear my prayer.
May your wrathful heart be stilled toward me.
Forgive my transgression, my fault, my misdeed.
May the wrath knotted in your great godhead loosen for me.
May the angry, wrathful, and incensed god and goddess be at peace with me.

Let me proclaim your greatness — let me sing your praise.

Sumerian rubric appended to the prayer:
It is the wording of a lifted-hand prayer to Nergal.

Ritual instruction:
Its ritual: you perform it with either an offering assemblage or an incense burner.

Colophon

Colophon: Standard Babylonian Akkadian, first millennium BCE. A classic shuilla prayer to Nergal, god of the underworld and battle. Two royal insertions are attested: MS B (K.2836+, Nineveh — Ashurbanipal, 668–627 BCE, eclipse formula) and MS G (PBS 1/2 119, Babylonia — Shamash-shum-ukin, 667–648 BCE, omen formula). The Shamash-shum-ukin insertion here is parallel to the same king's insertion in Nisaba 1; both derive from a standard omen petition formula. Text edition: Mayer, UFBG, 478–81. Introduction and commentary: Tzvi Abusch, in Alan Lenzi, ed., Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction (Society of Biblical Literature, 2011), pp. 339–349. Normalised Akkadian assembled line by line from Abusch's grammatical commentary. Translation independently derived from the normalised Akkadian; Lenzi and Abusch's commentary consulted for difficult grammatical forms. Translated by the New Tianmu Anglican Church with AI assistance, March 2026.

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Source Text

Normalised Akkadian Transliteration
(Nergal 2, Standard Babylonian; text after Abusch/Mayer in Lenzi 2011)

(šiptu:)
(1) bēlu gašru tizqāru bukur Nunamnir
(2) ašarēd Anunnakkī bēl tamḫāri
(3) ilitti Kutušar šarrati rabīti
(4) Nergal kaškaš ilī narām Ninmena
(5) šūpâta ina šamê ellūti šaqu manzāzka
(6) rabâta ina arallî māḫira lā tīšu
(7) itti Ea ina puḫur ilī milikka šūtur
(8) itti Sîn ina šamê tašeʾʾi gimri
(9) iddikkā-ma Ellil abūka ṣalmāt qaqqadi puḫur napišti
(10) būl Šakkan nammaššê qātukka ipqid
(11) anāku annanna mār annanna aradka

[MS B insertion — Ashurbanipal:]
(12) anāku Aššurbānipal aradka
(13) ina lumun attalî Sîn ša ina arḫi ūmi iššakna
(14) lumun idāti ittāti lemnēti lā ṭābāti
(15) ša ina ekallīya u mātīya ibšâ . . .

[MS G insertion — Šamaš-šum-ukīn:]
(12') anāku Šamaš-šum-ukīn mār ilīšu
(13') ša ilšu Marduk ištaršu Zarpānītu
(14') ina lumun idāti ittāti lemnēti lā ṭābāti
(15') ša ina ekallīya u mātīya ibšâ-ma
(16') palḫāku adrāku u šutādurāku
(17') lumuššina ana bītīya ana mātīya
(18') ayy-iṭḫâ ayy-isniq ayy-iqrib ayy-ikšudanni

(12) šibsāt ili u ištari iššaknūnim-ma
(13) ṣītu u ḫuluqqû ibbašû ina bītīya
(14) qabû u lā šemû iddalpūninni
(15) aššum gammalāta bēlī Nergal assaḫur ilūtka
(16) aššum tayyārāta ešteʾēka
(17) aššum rēmēnêta attaziz maḫarka
(18) aššum muppalsāta ātamar pānīka
(19) kīniš naplisannī-ma šime teslītu
(20) aggu libbaka linūḫa
(21) puṭur annī ḫiṭītī gillatī
(22) kiṣir libbi ilūtīka rabīti [x x] lippašir
(23) ili u ištari zenûtu šabsūtu kitmulūtu lislim ittīya
(24) narbīka lušāpi dalīlīka ludlul

(25) ka-inim-ma šu-íl-lá du-gur-kam
(26) epištašu: lū ina riksi lū nignakki teppuš

Source colophon: Normalised Akkadian assembled from Abusch's line-by-line commentary in Lenzi (2011), pp. 342–347, following the base text of Mayer, UFBG, 478–81. The MS G insertion follows Abusch's normalisation at pp. 344–345; the MS B insertion follows p. 344. Line 22 contains a damaged section marked [x x]. Line numbering follows Abusch's ordering, which transposes lines 17–18 from the majority of witnesses to follow MS B's sequence, because muppalsāta (line 18) should lead directly into naplisannī-ma (line 19).

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