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Translation: |
(Texts: All Artifacts, Color Coding, & Writings in Bold Type With Italics Inside Parenthesis, are Added by Editor R. Brown, not the Authors, Translators, or Publishers!) (gods in blue….giant mixed-breeds in teal) [To the citizenry of Babylon], of protected status, leaders learned And wise, [ ], men of business and commerce, great and small, [thus says Nebuchadnezzar, v] iceroy of Enlil, native of Babylon, The king, your lord, [ ] on a stele: [ ] you should know [that
The great lord Marduk, who] was angry at all the holy places for a long time, took [pity] on Babylon. He gave me in his majesty the [sublime] command, [in?] the awe-inspiring sanctuary [Esagila] he ordered me to take the road of march to [the land of] Elam. I gave reverent heed [to the command of the great lord] Marduk,assembled the army of Enlil, Shamash, and Marduk, and set forth towards [the land of] Elam. On I went, traversing distant [ways], waterless roads, night and d[ay. At the] Ulaya River, the enemy, the vile Elamite, [blocked] the water places in the gr[oves ] the troops [ ] traversed. I could give no water, nor could I relieve their fatigue. He advanced, hurtling his arrows, weapons [brandished] inbattle. Through the might of Enlil, [Shamash, and Marduk, which] has no [equ]al, I overwhelmed(?) the king of Elam, defeating him …His army scattered, his forces dispersed, [ ] deathly still, he(?) ravaged his (own) land, abandoned his strongholds, and disappeared.
of the gods, and the gods of the land [of Babylonia whom?] he commanded to convene with him. I raised [ ] … and set up a wailing, I brought the great lord [Marduk] in procession and set out on the road to his homeland. (Rest fragmentary. The king commands the restoration of Marduk and his treasures to Esagila.) |
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A fragmentary manuscript from the Late period preserves a letter, evidently addressed by Nebuchadnezzar to the Babylonians, telling them of his victory in Elam and recovery of Marduk’s statue. |
