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TRANSLATION
Adapted from Luckenbill (1924:45-47, 128-31)
1quickly I cut them down and defeated them.
2I cut their throats,
3and I cut off their precious lives like a string. Like the many waters
4of a storm, I made their gullets and entrails
5run down upon the wide earth. My prancing
6steeds harnessed for my riding plunged
7into the streams of their blood as (into) a river. The wheels of my war chariot,
8which brings the wicked and evil low,
9were spattered with blood and filth. With the bodies of their warriors
10I filled the plain like grass. Their testicles
11I cut off and tore out their privates like the seeds
12of cucumbers of Siwan. I cut off their hands.
13The heavy rings of brightest gold which were on their wrists
14I took away. With sharp swords
15I pierced their belts and took away
16the belt-daggars of gold and silver which were on their persons. The rest of his nobles, together with Nabû-shum-ishkun,
17son of Moerodach-baladan, who was frightened at my onslaught
18and had gone over to their side, my hands
19seized in the midst of the battle. The chariots and their horses,
20whose riders had been slain at the beginning of the terrible battle,
21and who had been left to themselves,
22kept running back and forth
23for two double-hours; I stopped their headlong flight.
24That Umman-menanu, king of Elam,
25together with the king of Babylon and the princes of Chaldea,
26who had gone over to their side, the terror of my battle
27overturned their bodies like a bull. They abandoned their tents;
28and to save their lives, they trampled
29the bodies of their soldiers; they fled like young pigeons
30that are pursued. Their hearts were torn;
31they held their urine, but let their dung go into their chariots.
32In pursuit of them,
33I dispatched my chariots and horses after them.
34Those among them who had escaped, who had fled for their lives,
35wherever they [the charioteers] met them, they cut them down with the sword.
| 36After that time—after I had completed the palace 37in the midst of the city of Nineveh for my royal residence, 38had filled it with beautiful furnishings, to the astonishment of all the people— 39the side-palace, which the former kings, 40my ancestors, had built 41for the care of the camp, the stabling of the horses, and general storage, 42had no terrace, that its site was too small, 43that its construction had not been skillfuly done, that, as the days went by, its foundation-platform 44had become weak, its foundation had given way and its roof had falen in. 45I tore down that palace in its entirety. 46A large tract of land in the meadows 47and environs of the city I confiscated, according to plan, 48and added to it. The site of the former palace 49I abandoned. With the ground of the meadows 50which I had seized from the riverflats, I filled in a terrace, 51I raised its top 200 tipki (thickness of brick) on high. In a favorable month 52on an auspicious day, on the top of that terrace, 53following the cunning of my heart, a palace of limestone 54and cedar, of Hittite workmanship also a 55lofty palace of Assyrian workmanship, which 56far surpassed the former one in size and beauty, 57according to the plan of wise architects, 58I had them build for my royal residence. 59Mighty cedar beams, the product of Amanus, the shining mountain, 60I stretched over them. Door-leaves of liari-wood I 61covered with a sheathing of bright bronze and set up 62in their doors. Out of white limestone, 63which is found in the land of the city of Baladai, 64I had mighty statues fashioned and 65positioned on the right and left of the entrances. For the equipment of the 66black-headed people, the stabling of horses, mules, colts, 67riding camels, chariots, wagons, carts, quivers, 68bows and arrows, all kinds of battle equipment: 69teams of horses and mules which 70possessed enormous strength, and were broken to the yoke. 71I greatly enlarged its court of the gates. That palace, from its foundation 72to its coping, I constructed, I finished. A stele 73with my name inscribed on it I set up in it. In the days to come 74among the kings, my sons, whose name Aššur 75and Ishtar shall name for the rule of land and people, 76when that palace shall become old and ruined, 77may some future prince restore its ruins, look upon 78the stele with my name inscribed on it, anoint it with oil, 79pour out a libation upon it, and return it to its place. Then Aššur and Ishtar 80will hear his prayers. He who destroys my inscription and my name— 81may Aššur, the great lord, the father of the gods, 82treat him as an enemy, 83take away the scepter and throne from him, and overthrow his rule. 84The month of Tammuz; eponym of Gahilu, 85governor of Hatarikka. Luckenbill, Daniel David. The Annals of Sennacherib. Oriental Institute Publications 2. 1924. Reprint, Ancient Texts and Translations. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2005. | ||||
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