When the Babylonians and Assyrians observed an evil omen — an eclipse, a snake in the house, two lions fighting in the street, a star in the wrong part of the sky — they did not believe their fate was sealed. They believed fate was something that could be undone. The namburbi ritual (the word means "its release" or "its undoing") was the formal mechanism for that release. A priest performed the ritual on behalf of the afflicted person, and the prayer component — the spoken word addressed to the gods — was the verbal cutting of the thread that connected the omen to its evil consequence.
The healing triad who govern this prayer are the most powerful ritual agents in the Mesopotamian cosmos. Ea holds wisdom, fresh water, and all incantations — his word can stop death. Shamash, the sun god, is the great judge of heaven and earth, the one whose light exposes hidden evil. Asalluhi was originally a minor deity from the marshland town of Kuara, later absorbed into Marduk; in the ritual literature he is the divine exorcist, the god whose spoken incantation brings healing. When all three speak together, no evil omen can hold.
This is a "universal" namburbi — designed not for one specific omen but for all of them. Lunar eclipses, solar eclipses, stars in the wrong celestial path, wandering planets, frightening dreams — the prayer addresses the entire spectrum of ominous possibility. The supplicant's name is left blank (written as NENNI, "so-and-so"), making it a template that any afflicted person can inhabit. The preserved text is fragmentary: the opening invocation (lines 1–3) is lost, and the manuscript contains a gap of indeterminate length between the omen list and the wind-petition that follows.
This is a Good Works Translation from Standard Babylonian Akkadian, produced by the New Tianmu Anglican Church with AI assistance.
[Lines 1–3: not preserved]
You who are of heaven and of earth —
who hold in your hands the decreeing of fates, the drawing of plans:
you decree the fates of life,
you draw the plans of life,
you pass the verdicts of life.
Your spell is life.
From your mouths comes healing.
The command of your mouths is life itself.
Judges of the land's affairs,
who tread the wide earth,
who spread across the sky,
who walk the far reaches of the heavens —
it is you.
You who change evil to good,
who establish grace,
who wipe out evil omens and omen-signs,
who dissolve frightening dreams of evil —
who cut the threads of evil, who loose the ritual releases
wherever signs appear —
I am [Name], son of [Name],
whose god is [Name] and whose goddess is [Name],
upon whom evil omens and omen-signs have kept appearing.
I am afraid; I am in dread; I am constantly in fear —
in the evil of an eclipse of the moon,
in the evil of an eclipse of the sun,
in the evil of stars in the paths of Ea, of Anu, of Ellil,
in the evil of wandering planets
that have drawn near the paths of the constellations.
[Gap of indeterminate length]
[. . . let them] pass over me —
[. . .] may I not be turned to demon-flesh.
Let the [. . . wind] blow past — but let its evil not come near.
Let the south wind blow past — but let its evil not come near.
Let the north wind blow past — but let its evil not come near.
Let the east wind blow past — but let its evil not come near.
Let the west wind blow past — but let its evil not come near.
By your exalted command that cannot be changed,
and your reliable decree that cannot be altered —
let me live, let me be well.
O Ea, Shamash, and Asalluhi:
let me praise your great divinity
on account of these days.
Shamash, magnify this exorcism —
whose maker is Marduk, sage of the gods.
(It is the wording for the resolution of fate concerning all bad things.)
Colophon
Colophon: Standard Babylonian Akkadian, first millennium BCE, Neo-Assyrian copies. Classified as a universal namburbi prayer (šiptu ša namburbi gammar), attested in nine Assyrian manuscripts (Maul's MSS A–C etc.; edition: Stefan M. Maul, Zukunftsbewältigung: Eine Untersuchung altorientalischer Denkmuster anhand der babylonisch-assyrischen Löserituale [namburbi], 1994, unavailable). This edition follows Maul's MS A as base text. MS C was prepared specifically for Esarhaddon (7th century BCE) with an expanded list of around two hundred specific portents. Text accessed through Jeffrey L. Cooley's grammatical commentary in Lenzi, ed., Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction (Society of Biblical Literature, 2011), pp. 403–419 (chapter by Cooley), with supporting commentary by Lenzi on Ea, Shamash, and Asalluhi as deities (pp. 227, 197). Lines 1–3 are not preserved in the accessible manuscripts. There is a gap of indeterminate length between the omen list (line 23) and the wind-petition (line 1ʹ). Lines 3ʹ–7ʹ form a four-wind litany for evil dispersal. Line 13ʹ is the Sumerian rubric: ka-inim-ma ḫul-meš dù-a-bi nam búr-da-kam, "the wording for the resolution of fate concerning all bad things." The prayer was incorporated into a universal namburbi handbook (SpBTU II, no. 18). Related prayer in the series: Ea 1a (shuilla to Ea), Shamash 25 (namburbi against the evil of a snake). Normalised Akkadian assembled line by line from Cooley's grammatical commentary in Lenzi 2011; Lenzi/Cooley's English not used. Translated by the New Tianmu Anglican Church with AI assistance, March 2026.
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Source Text
Normalised Akkadian Transliteration
(Standard Babylonian; text after Maul ZB/MS A, as presented in Cooley's commentary in Lenzi 2011, pp. 408–414)
[Lines 1–3: not preserved]
(4) ša šamê u erṣeti attunū-ma
(5) šīmāti šâmu uṣurāti uṣṣuru ša qātīkunū-ma
(6) šīmāt balāṭi attunū-ma tašimmā
(7) uṣurāt balāṭi attunū-ma tuṣṣarā
(8) purussê balāṭi attunū-ma taparrasā
(9) tûkunu balāṭu ṣīt pīkunu šalāmu
(10) epiš pīkunu balāṭum-ma
(11) dā'inū dēn māti kābisū erṣeti rapašti
(12) ēma šamê saḫpū kābisū šamê rūqūti attunū-ma
(13) munakkirū lumni šākinū dumqi
(14) mupassisū idāti ittāti lemnēti
(15) šunāti pardāti lemnēti lā ṭābāti
(16) musallitū qê lumni mupašširū namburbê
(17) ēma ittāti mala bašâ
(18) anāku annanna mār annanna ša ilšu annanna ištaršu annannītu
(19) ša idāti ittāti lemnēti ittanabšānim-ma
(20) palḫākū-ma adrāku u šutādurāku
(21) ina lumun attalî Sîn ina lumun attalî Šamaš
(22) ina lumun kakkabī ša šūt Ea šūt Ani šūt Ellil
(23) ina lumun bibbu ša ana kakkabī ḫarrānāti isniqu
[Gap of indeterminate length]
(1ʹ) [. . .] šūtiqāninni-ma
(2ʹ) [. . . ana] šīri asakki lā ammanni
(3ʹ) [IM . . . li-zi-qa-a]m-ma lumuššunu ayy-izīqa
(4ʹ) šūtu lizīqam-ma lumuššunu ayy-izīqa
(5ʹ) ištānu lizīqam-ma lumuššunu ayy-izīqa
(6ʹ) šadû lizīqam-ma lumuššunu ayy-izīqa
(7ʹ) amurru lizīqam-ma lumuššunu ayy-izīqa
(8ʹ) ina qibītīkunu ṣīrti ša lā nakāru
(9ʹ) u annīkunu kīnim ša lā enû
(10ʹ) lubluṭ lušlim-ma Ea Šamaš u Asalluḫi
(11ʹ) dalīlī ilūtīkunu rabīti ana itti ūmē annûti ludlul
(12ʹ) Šamaš šurbi āšipūti ša ēpušu apkal ilī Marduk
(13ʹ) ka-inim-ma ḫul-meš dù-a-bi nam búr-da-kam
Source colophon: Normalised Akkadian assembled line by line from Jeffrey L. Cooley's grammatical commentary in Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction (Lenzi, ed., 2011), pp. 408–414. The base text is Maul's MS A of the universal namburbi (Maul, Zukunftsbewältigung, 1994). Square brackets indicate restored or partially preserved text in the manuscript. Lines 1–3 are not preserved. Lines 3ʹ–7ʹ form a wind-litany; 3ʹ names an unspecified wind (one directional sign preserved, the rest of the name lost), followed by the four cardinal winds in order: south (šūtu), north (ištānu), east (šadû), west (amurru). Line 13ʹ is the Sumerian rubric common to namburbi prayers. MS B of this prayer adds seven lines of ritual instruction after the rubric.
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