Babylonian Oracle Questions

The Babylonian tamitu texts are a corpus of questions addressed to the sun-god Shamash and the storm-god Adad jointly. Professional diviners were employed to put the questions with the appropriate rites and to formulate the wording correctly, since the only answer would be “yes” or “no.” Thus the questions had to include a detailed exposition of the matter, and they open up intimate glances of things not otherwise available. Kings ask whether they should undertake a certain campaign, laying out a detailed plan of action. At the other end of the scale, a man wants to know whether his wife is telling him the truth. All tablets are of first millennium B.C. date, though some of the questions date from the second millennium B.C. Scribes copied out questions to serve as models for later use.

In this volume W.G. Lambert has gathered together all the known material, including 54 tablets and fragments not previously published. All are given in cuneiform copy, transliteration, translation, with notes and an introduction. By far the greater part of this material has not been edited before.

“This book with its excellent editions will serve as the basis for studies on the tamītu texts or on divination and religion in general for many years to come.”—Uri Gabbay, Archiv für Orientforschung

“This volume is a welcome addition to the slowly growing corpus of divinatory material from Mesopotamia which provides rich raw material for further historical analysis. The author is to be congratulated for his careful and thorough critical edition of these fascinating texts.”—Eleanor Robson, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

“Babylonian Oracle Questions is the decades-long product of one of the giants of our field and it will undoubtedly stand the test of time.”—Jamie Novotny, Journal of the American Oriental Society

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

List of Cuneiform Tablets Published in This Book

Introduction

No. 1

No. 2

No. 3

No. 4

No. 5

Nos–8

Nos–10

No. 11

No. 12

No. 13

No. 14

No. 15

No. 16

No. 17

No. 18

No. 19

No. 20

No. 21

No. 22

No. 23

No. 24

No. 25

No. 26

Fragment A

Fragment B

Fragment C

Fragment D

Fragment E

Fragment F

Fragment G

Notes

Appendix: A Late Fragment of Old Babylonian Letters

Plates

Index of Words Rare and Discussed