A Hand-Raising Prayer to Madānu, the Judge

First English translation. A Vigslist translation.

A Hand-Raising Prayer to Madānu, the Judge — the Assur score. The Berlin group's preserved score of the šuila to Madānu, from composition line 4 onward — its tablet's top edge, and the opening, are gone.

First-English working label (this Berlin score). The edition of record is Werner Mayer (1976) and Maul & Strauß, KAL 4 no. 59 (2011); a French translation stands in Seux (1976), pp. 316–318 (German and French). No English translation was found in the checks named below.

The claim is scoped to this Berlin witness score as it stands here; the composition’s Nineveh witnesses have not been collated for a whole-composition claim.

Status: published reading. Printed in Vigslist Translations (Piece 11, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23587830). Built 2026-10-22.

Tablets: VAT 13684 + VAT 14062 (+) VAT 13950 (+) VAT 13953 (+) VAT 14227 (Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin) — four fragments of one Neo-Assyrian single-column tablet (113 × 82 × 23 mm), joined only indirectly. Older copies: LKA 46 (VAT 13684), LKA 47a (VAT 13953), LKA 47b (VAT 13950 (+) VAT 14227). CDLI P413958 (group score).

Composition: the Akkadian šu-il₂-la₂ ("hand-raising") prayer to Madānu, the judge god — "Madānu 1" in W. Mayer, Untersuchungen zur Formensprache der babylonischen "Gebetsbeschwörungen" (Studia Pohl SM 5, 1976), pp. 459–465, where the Berlin fragments are witnesses G (LKA 46), H (LKA 47a+b) and I (VAT 14062). Further witnesses: K 8116 (BMS 48), VAT 13631 (LKA 43), VAT 13634 (LKA 44), VAT 13638 (LKA 45), VAT 14074 (KAL 4 no. 58), W 22817+ W 22823, K 2830, K 6019+, BM 78275 (CT 44, 22).

Gates, on the face

1. EDITION (German): W. Mayer, UFBG (1976), pp. 459–465, "Madānu 1"; re-edited as Text Nr. 59 in S. M. Maul & R. Strauß, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts 4: Ritualbeschreibungen und Gebete I (2011), pp. 112–114, with German translation. Eyeballed tonight, 2026-10-22, in the publisher-grade open digitization of KAL 4 at the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften (digi.hadw-bw.de/view/kal4, scans 0125–0127 = pp. 112–114). The German translation on those pages is the control for every restoration printed below. 3. #tr.en census: every Berlin witness record serves #tr.en 0 (VAT 13684 checked line by line tonight; the group score carries no English translation segment). 4. #note: sigla in the served text: the score's notes cite "Maul and Strauß 2011: 113" for the restorations at obv. 17′ ("[ana {d}Marduk EN reš-ti]-i", "[To Marduk, foremo]st [lord]") and obv. 18′ ("[ṣa-bat a-bu-ti]", "[Intercede]") — German-edition restorations, credited here, not silent. 5. Counts: 34 line-units — 0 WHOLE / 24 PART / 5 FRAGMENT / 5 RESTORATION-ONLY. The five restoration-only units (obv. 2′, 5′, 8′, 12′, 15′) are verse-halves lost on all four Berlin fragments; they are printed as gaps, not filled from the duplicates. The tablet's top edge is gone: composition lines 1–3 (the opening "Lord, who keeps all people on the right path…") survive on VAT 14074 (KAL 4 no. 58) and the Nineveh witnesses, not here, and are not rendered. 6. Dragon/serpent scan: NONE. No ušumgal, muš, mušḫuššu, bašmu or ṣerru wording anywhere in the score. (The muš- hits in the raw text are the participles mušērib "who brings in" and mušteširu "who keeps straight", obv. 3′ — not serpents; printed here so the false positive is on the record.)

Cross-note: this prayer sits in the šuila recovery field that Wave C7 is hunting by incipit; the dossier is flagged for the morning merge so the two lanes do not double-claim it.

The text (as preserved on the Berlin fragments)

Madānu is the divine judge — the prayer calls him DI.KUD, "the Judge", throughout, and its rubric names him by that title alone. The suppliant does not plead his own case: he asks the judge god to plead it for him — before Marduk himself.

Obverse

1′. […… who spares] the fallen [and the wretched, who rescues the murdered man,] 2′. [— verse-half not preserved on the Berlin fragments —] 3′. […… who] brings in good things, who [keeps (the orphan girl) straight …] 4′. […… the god] without whom [no counsel or decision is spoken,] 5′. [— verse-half not preserved on the Berlin fragments —] 6′. [……] Judge of god and goddess, who watches over [the Igigi gods,] 7′. […… who takes] care of E-da-sa-he-gal, [the house of …] all […] 8′. [— verse-half not preserved on the Berlin fragments —] 9′. […… who wat]ches humankind, who sees [truly everything there is,] 10′. [……] Merciful god, [who loves to fill (the dying) with life,] 11′. […… who] takes the hand of the fallen one [in] distress, [who fills the death-doomed man with life,] 12′. [— verse-half not preserved on the Berlin fragments —] 13′. [……] The Judge, merciful god, [who loves to fill (the dying) with life,] 14′. […… who] takes the hand of the fallen one […] 15′. [— verse-half not preserved on the Berlin fragments —] 16′. [……] Among the gods you are the merciful one: hear my prayer! 17′. […… before Marduk, the foremo]st [lord], the merciful god, 18′. […… intercede for me!] Speak a favourable word! 19′. […… Appea]se for me the angry god 20′. […… and] the angry goddess, 21′. [……] that [god and goddess] may set me straight, and my way may prosper! 22′. [……] my […] … let it prosper. 23′. […… among] the gods have mercy on me!

Reverse

1. […… I have grasped the hem of] your [garment] — grant me life! 2. […… prolong] my days! 3. [……] widen [… my fold], multiply my offspring! 4. [……] beget children. 5. […… drive off my sick]ness, decree life! 6. [……] may my [sin be loosed], may my fear be carried away! 7. Let my offence be forgotten, scatter my sighs! 8. I will make known your great deeds, [I will praise your name …] 9. [……] … traces … 10. Daily, unceasingly, […] I will praise [your heroism!] 11. (rubric) Incantation: a hand-raising prayer to the Judge (Madānu).

Rest of the reverse blank.

Notes

• Obv. 7′: E-da-sa-he-gal (É-da-sá-ḫe-gál) is a temple name, "House of Abundant Offerings" (George, House Most High, no. 135); the duplicates disagree on the line's second half, and Mayer's reading of LKA 44 is disputed by Maul & Strauß (KAL 4, p. 114) — the build renders only what the Berlin score attests.
• Obv. 17′–18′: the restorations are Maul & Strauß's (KAL 4, p. 113), from the duplicates; they are the point at which the prayer turns from praising the judge to commissioning him: Madānu is asked to stand before Marduk — his own superior in the pantheon — and intercede. The judge god as defence counsel.
• Rev. 11, the rubric, is Sumerian: ka-inim-ma šu-íl-lá DI.KUD-ke₄, "Wording of a hand-raising (prayer) to the Judge" — the German edition's rendering ("Wortlaut der Handerhebung an den Richtergott") agrees.
• The same composition's opening (lost here) is preserved on VAT 14074, KAL 4 Text Nr. 58 — a separate Berlin fragment, not part of this group; it is named as next ground in the D11 report.

Vigslist translations — working copy. Small print as standard: machine-assisted reading, cross-verified against the editions named above; nothing here is published.

Nuvira Technologies conducts this research with AI assistance, cross-verified against the primary sources to scholarly integrity standards. Uncertain readings are marked; broken lines are left broken.

— Richard Vigslist, Founder, Nuvira Technologies

More antiquities research: Antiquities Research

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