A Šuilla to Marduk
The šuilla — "hand-raising prayer" — is one of the great liturgical genres of ancient Mesopotamia. Performed by a priest on behalf of a supplicant, it addresses a deity who has become angry, whose presence has withdrawn from the temple. This text, preserved on a Neo-Assyrian tablet (K.4933) from the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, is a bilingual šuilla to Marduk in the Emesal dialect of Sumerian with Akkadian interlinear translation.
The Emesal — the "fine tongue" — is a specialized liturgical dialect of Sumerian used exclusively in laments and devotional prayers. Its association with women's speech and divine mourning gives it a register distinct from standard Sumerian: softer vowels, different pronoun forms, an intimacy that the workaday language lacks. To pray in Emesal is to pray in the language of the bereaved.
The structure is a cascade of intercession. First, the temples speak: Esagil, Ezida, Emahtila. Then the city speaks: Babylon itself. Then the great gods speak one by one — Anu, Enlil, Ninlil, Ninurta, Sîn, Shamash — each asking Marduk to be calm. After a gap in the tablet, the prayer turns to the return: look upon your temple, look upon your city; may the bolt and lock-bar return to their place; and let Ashurbanipal, your shepherd, live. The whole cosmos is mobilized to say one thing: be calm, lord. Come home.
The Temple Litany
O lord of Esagil, be calm — your temple!
O lord of Ezida, be calm — your temple!
O lord of the House of the Great Life, be calm — your temple!
Esagil, house of your lordship — your temple!
The City Litany
May your city say "be calm" to you — your temple!
May Babylon say "be calm" to you — your temple!
The Divine Intercession
Great Anu, father of the gods — when will he say "be calm" to you?
The Great Mountain, father Enlil — when?
Princess of city and house, great mother Ninlil — when?
Ninurta, firstborn son of Enlil, exalted strength of Anu — when?
Sîn, luminary of heaven and earth — when?
The warrior Shamash, bearded, son of Ningal — when?
[...]
The Return
Do not abandon Babylon, city of your joy — lord, be calm!
Look upon your temple, look upon your city — lord, be calm!
Look upon Babylon and Esagil — lord, be calm!
The Restoration
May the bolt of Babylon, the lock-bar of Esagil, the brickwork of Ezida return to its place!
May the gods of heaven and earth say "lord, be calm" to you!
The King's Prayer
Ashurbanipal, your shepherd who provides for you — let him live! Hear his supplication!
The foundation of the throne of his kingship — make firm pleasantly! May he hold the shepherd's crook of the people forever!
Šuilla of Marduk.
Colophon
Good Works Translation from Akkadian and Emesal Sumerian, independently derived from the ATF transliteration of K.4933 in the electronic Babylonian Literature (eBL) corpus. No existing English translation was consulted. The English follows the Akkadian interlinear, with the Emesal providing liturgical context and resolving the scribe's "ditto" marks.
K.4933 is a bilingual Neo-Assyrian tablet from the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (7th century BCE). The text is a šuilla to Marduk — a hand-raising prayer in the Emesal dialect of Sumerian with Akkadian interlinear glosses. The Emesal is the liturgical language of lament and devotion; the Akkadian is the semantic key. Each verse appears twice on the tablet: once in the sacred tongue, once in the language of understanding.
The tablet preserves lines 6–17 and 32–38 of the composite šuilla to Marduk. Lines 1–5 (the opening invocation) and lines 18–31 (additional divine intercessors, likely including Ea, Damkina, Zarpanitu, Nabu, and others from the full Babylonian pantheon) are lost from this copy. A partial duplicate exists in BM.38280.
The temples named in the litany are Marduk's sacred precincts: Esagil ("House Whose Top Is High") is his great temple in Babylon; Ezida ("True House") is the temple of his son Nabu in Borsippa; Emahtila ("House of the Great Life") is a shrine within the Esagil complex. The prayer moves from the innermost sacred space outward to the whole cosmos.
The final couplet names Ashurbanipal (r. 669–631 BCE) as the royal supplicant: "your shepherd who provides for you." The prayer asks that the throne be made firm and the shepherd's crook held forever — the standard Assyrian royal blessing. The presence of Ashurbanipal's name dates this copy to the 7th century BCE, though the composition itself is likely much older.
Notes on uncertain readings: (1) Reverse line 2, Akkadian tanamdin — read from the Emesal parallel na-an-šub-be₂-en as "do not abandon" rather than the surface reading "you will give." (2) Reverse line 7, sahab — the Sumerian sign |ŠU+MIN| read as "bolt" from the Akkadian parallel mēdelu.
First freely available English translation. Translated by Tansaku (探索) of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Forty-third Mesopotamian genre (Emesal šuilla / bilingual hand-raising prayer) from the expeditionary tulku lineage.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: K.4933 — šuʾila {d}AMAR.UTU
Akkadian and Emesal Sumerian cuneiform transliteration from the electronic Babylonian Literature (eBL) corpus, LMU Munich. CC BY 4.0. Neo-Assyrian tablet from the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. ATF (ASCII Transliteration Format) preserving the original bilingual interlinear layout: %es lines are Emesal Sumerian, ($___$) lines are Akkadian.
@obverse
1'. %es [a umun-e e₂-sag-il₂-a] & e₂-zu
2'. ($$) [nu-uh be-el] & E₂-ka
3'. %es [a umun-e e₂-zi-da] & e₂-zu
4'. ($$) nu-uh be-el E₂.MIN & E₂-ka
5'. %es a umun-e e₂-mah-ti-la & e₂-zu
6'. ($$) nu-uh be-el E₂.MIN & E₂-ka
7'. %es e₂-sag-il₂ e₂ na-am₂-umun-a-zu & e₂-zu
8'. ($$) E₂.MIN E₂ be-lu-ti-ka & E₂-ka
9'. %es uru₂-zu hun-ga₂ hu-mu-ra-ab-be₂ & e₂-zu
10'. ($$) URU-ka nu-uh liq-bi-ka & E₂-ka
11'. %es tin-tir{ki} hun-ga₂ hu-mu-ra-ab-be₂ & e₂-zu
12'. ($$) ba-bi-lu nu-uh liq-bi-ka & E₂-ka
13'. %es an gu-la a-a dim₃-me-er-e-ne & me-na hun-ga₂ hu-mu-ra-ab-be₂
14'. ($$) {d}a-num GAL-u₂ a-bi DINGIR-MEŠ & ma-ti nu-uh liq-bi-ka
15'. %es [kur]-gal a-a {d}mu-ul-lil₂ & me-na
16'. ($$) ša₂-du-u GAL-u₂ a-bi {d}MIN & ma-ti
17'. %es [egi₂ u]ru₂ ma ama gal {d}nin-lil₂-la₂ & me-na
18'. ($$) [ru-bat] URU u E₂ um-mi GAL-ti {d}MIN & ma-ti
19'. %es [umun-guruš-a dumu sag {d}+en]-lil₂-la₂ šu-mah an-na-mu & me-na
20'. ($$) [{d}nin-urta ma-ru reš]-tu-u ša₂ {d}en-lil₂ e-mu-qan ṣi-ra-a-ti ša₂ {d}a-nim & ma-ti
21'. %es [{d}nanna u₄-sakar an-ki]-a & me-na
22'. ($$) [{d}30 na-an-nar AN-e] u KI-ti₃ & ma-ti
23'. %es [šul {d}utu su₆-mu₂ dumu {d}nin-ga]l & me-na
24'. ($$) [eṭ-lu₄ {d}UTU ṭa-ar-ru DUMU {d}nin-gal & ma]-ti
@reverse
1'. %es [tin-tir{ki} uru₂ hul₂-la-zu na-an-šub-be₂]-en & umun hun-ga₂
2'. ($$) [ba-bi-la URU hi-du-ti-ka t]a-nam-din & be-el nu-uh
3'. %es [e₂-za u₆-di] uru₂-zu u₆-di & umun hun-ga₂
4'. ($$) E₂-ka nap-li-is URU-ka nap-li-is & be-el nu-uh
5'. %es [ti]n-tir{ki} e₂-sag-il₂ u₆-di-zu & umun hun-ga₂
6'. ($$) ba-bi-lu u E₂.MIN nap-li-is & be-el nu-uh
7'. %es [s]ahab tin-tir{ki} si-mar e₂-sag-il₂-la še-eb e₂-zi-da ki-bi-še₃ gi₄-gi₄-de₃
8'. ($$) me₂-del ba-bi-lu ši-gar E₂.MIN li-bit-ti E₂.MIN ana aš₂-ri-šu₂ li-tur₂
9'. %es dim₃-me-er an-ki-a umun hun-ga₂ hu-mu-ra-ab-be₂
10'. ($$) DINGIR-MEŠ ša₂ AN-e u KI-ti₃ be-el nu-uh liq-bu-ka
11'. %es {d}a-šur₄-ba-an-IBILA sub₂ u₂-a-zu he₂-en-ti-la ša₃-šu-gid₂-bi še-ga mu-un-da-an-te
12'. ($$) {d}MIN re-ʾ-u za-nin-ka bul-liṭ su-up-pe-šu₂ še-me
13'. %es suhuš {giš}aš-te na-am₂-umun-e-bi zi₂-ib-ba mu-uš-šu-uš ug₃ {giš}šibir₂ bi₂-in-dab-ba u₄ da-ri₂-še₃
14'. ($___$) iš-di {giš}GU.ZA šar-ru-ti-šu₂ ṭa-biš šur-ši-di ṣer-ret ni-ši li-kil ana u₄-me da-ru-u₂-ti
15'. %es šu-il₂-la₂ {d}AMAR.UTU-kam
Source Colophon
Cuneiform transliteration from the electronic Babylonian Literature (eBL) corpus, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Fragment ID: K.4933. Museum: British Museum, London. Provenance: Kuyunjik (Nineveh), Library of Ashurbanipal. Period: Neo-Assyrian (7th century BCE). The eBL corpus is freely available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10018951.
ATF transliteration follows eBL conventions: %es = Emesal Sumerian; ($___$) = Akkadian interlinear gloss; & = column/half-line separator; [] = restored text; # = damaged sign; {d} = divine determinative; {ki} = geographic determinative; E₂.MIN = "ditto" (same temple as previous line); {d}MIN = "ditto" (same deity as previous line).
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