Monday, March 23, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org

A Tamitu to Shamash and Adad

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

A tamitu is a yes-or-no question posed before extispicy — the reading of an animal's entrails. The diviner addresses Shamash, god of justice and the sun, and Adad, god of storms and divination, the twin lords of the oracle. The question takes the form of a series of negative petitions: "Will they not do this? Will they not do that?" The entrails give the answer. This prayer survives on a Nimrud tablet (ND 5492) that gathered six tamitu together on a single compendium, copied for an exorcist at Ashurbanipal's palace. The "owner of the woolen fringe" is identified by his fringe — a substitute for his presence, functioning like a seal or a thumbprint.

Shamash, lord of the decision —
Adad, lord of divination —
to you I bring my asking:
give me a true yes.

Answer me.
Concerning the owner of this woolen fringe —
who keeps watch from field so-and-so
to field so-and-so —
your great divinity knows his guard.

From today, by the rite of divination,
until the thirtieth day of this month,
the day the moon withdraws:

The enemy army — all there are,
from the light troops
to the heavy corps —

Will they not swell themselves?
Will they not muster?
Will they not strengthen themselves?
Will they not gain helpers and reinforcements?
Will they not mount an attack, a raid?

And during the watch of the owner of this fringe —
in the open steppe, among the livestock;
in the city, among the spoil —
little where little is,
much where much is —

Will they not kill what can be killed?
Will they not plunder what can be plundered?
Will they not carry off what can be carried off?

And evil tidings —
will they not send them
to the owner of this woolen fringe,
making his heart sick and wretched?

Pass over the time beyond the coming month's end.

An oracle-query for the well-being of the watch.

Colophon

Translated from Standard Babylonian Akkadian by the New Tianmu Anglican Church with AI assistance, March 2026. The tamitu is a genre of divination-query prayer posed before extispicy; this is the sole tamitu in Lenzi's anthology. The Akkadian transliteration follows Alan Lenzi, Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011), 466–470. The cuneiform manuscript is ND 5492 (= IM 67692), a Neo-Assyrian compendium tablet containing six tamitu, copied at Ashurbanipal's palace at Nimrud; Lambert assigns it to Tablet VII of the Nimrud tamitu series. The critical edition is W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Oracle Questions (Mesopotamian Civilizations 13; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2007), 21–41. Lambert's English translation was consulted as reference; this translation is independently derived from the Akkadian.

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Source Text — Akkadian Transliteration

(Standard Babylonian, first millennium BCE. Transliteration from Lenzi 2011, pp. 466–470, following Lambert's edition.)

  1. ᵈUTU EN di-nim ᵈIŠKUR EN bi-ri
  2. šá a-šal-lu-ku-nu-ši an-na ki-na
  3. ap-la-in-ni EN SÍG u TÚG.SÍG an-nu-ú
  4. š[á] TA A.ŠÀ NENNI EN A.ŠÀ NENNI
  5. [E]N.NUN ina-ṣa-ru-ma DINGIR-ut-ku-nu GAL-tum
  6. ZU-ú TA ud₄-me NE DÙ-ti ba-ru-ti
  7. [E]N UD.30.KÁM UD.NÁ.A šá ITI an-ni-i
  8. ÉRIN KÚR ma-la ba-šu-ú TA qal-la-ti
  9. [E]N ka-bit-ti la uš-ta-gap-pa-šu
  10. [l]a uš-ta-paḫ-ḫa-ru la uš-ta-dan-na-nu
  11. re-ṣi u til-la-ti la TUKU-ši-ma
  12. ti-ba ši-iḫ-ṭa la i-šak-ka-nam-ma
  13. i-na EN.NUN šá EN SÍG u TÚG.SÍG an-ni-i
  14. i-na EDIN MÁŠ.ANŠE i-na URU šal-la-ta
  15. i-na mi-ṣi mi-ṣa i-na ma-a'-di
  16. ma-a'-da šá da-a-ki la i-duk-ku
  17. šá ḫa-ba-a-ti la i-ḫab-ba-tu
  18. šá šál-la-li la i-šal-la-l[u]
  19. ù bu-su-ra-a-ti šá MUNUS.ḪUL
  20. ana EN SÍG u TÚG.SÍG an-ni-i la ú-pa-as-s[a-ru]
  21. šÀ-šú la GIG-šu la i-lam-me-nu
  22. e-zib ana EGIR a-dan-ni šá ITI e-ri-bi
  23. ta-mit ana SILIM-um EN.NUN

(Line 23 is the scribal rubric, not part of the prayer.)

Source Colophon

Akkadian transliteration from Alan Lenzi, Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011), pp. 466–470. Critical edition: W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Oracle Questions (Mesopotamian Civilizations 13; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2007), 21–41, especially 30–33. Manuscript: ND 5492 (= IM 67692), Nimrud compendium tablet, Tablet VII of the Nimrud tamitu series.

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