A prayer for Rim-Sin (Rim-Sin G): translation

^1-10May lord Nanna, king of heaven and earth, your good protective deity, accept the holy food offerings that you prepare, and the holy pure drink offerings that you proffer with holy hands; the sacrifices that you bring, what you say in your heart, what you utter out loud, your reverent gestures and your holy hands raised in prayer. May the august queen Ningal, your queen of favourable signs, accept them also. O king, they who have suppressed famine, the great gods Nanna and Ningal, have conferred abundance on you, kingRim-Sîn, in the temple of the gods.

^11-21O king named with a name by Enlil, the destiny of whose reign is abundance, a time of richness and years of happiness! May a destiny of stability and a destiny of abundance be your lot. O king, day and night, even at dead of night, time shall pass for you in endless abundance, and be agreeable and stable for you. O king, since you have offered your food offerings first offered in the abzu; o king, since you have offered your food offerings afterwards in the great courtyard, there shall be no end to the abundance. O King, the temple shall be well-organised for you. Rim-Sîn, king of Urim, has restored the august divine powers of the Ki-ur.

^22-38May Nanna, the king of heaven and earth, fit perfectly onto your head the legitimate august headdress of kingship. May the august queen Ningal, who has saved you from famine thanks to her benignity, let you live (?) an agreeable life for these days. As you receive from her holy hands the great splendour of kingship, may she place the august sceptre of heaven and earth in your hands like a ceremonial robe. Rim-Sîn, king of the Ki-ur, endowed with abundance, constant attendant! O king, may the Tigris bring you abundance, and may the upper (?) Nun canal be filled for you with flowing water in its full flood. May the Nun canal, the good Nun canal, the life-bringing canal of the Land, bring you fish and fowl; from the ocean, the wide sea, from the standing reservoirs, may it bring an unending supply of creatures for your kingship. In the wide open spaces of the wide desert, the four-footed animals ....... May water levels rise for you in the irrigation ditches, with their levees, and the water-channels.

^39-51May there be life for you, and may there be a favourable response to your prayers. May there be joy for you, and may there be favourable signs for you. May your heart be satisfied, may your body be satisfied; may your mood and your definite signs from the gods be good. May there be favourable omens in the heart of Nanna and Ningal, and a destiny of life be granted for ever. Rim-Sîn, seemly king, who holds abundance in his hands from the great gods, may the country be stable for you, and may the foundations of the country be secure for you. May Nanna, king of heaven and earth, cause the Land to respond to you with a single voice. Rim-Sîn, you are my king!

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Revision history

4.vi.1999-27.vi.1999 : JAB : adapting translation
28.vii.1999 : GZ : proofreading
06.viii.1999 : GZ : SGML tagging
10.ix.1999 : ER : proofreading SGML
10.ix.1999 : ER : converting to HTML 4.0
7.ix.2001 : ER : header and footer reformatted; substantive content of file not changed