“Receive It, Marduk, Great Lord” — a Morning Prayer

A reading, published with its checks still open. A Vigslist translation.

“Receive it, Marduk, great lord” — a morning prayer. A morning prayer to Marduk.

Published as a reading. No first-translation claim is made for this piece. The checks that would settle such a claim are named in the notes below and are still open; the wording on this page claims nothing they have not settled.

only (CT 51, no. 207): a short Akkadian prayer to Marduk for the sprinkling rite at dawn. No edition of it was found in any source checked. One door stands on the face, below.

Credits

• Copy: Walker, Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, Part LI (CT 51), pl. 71, no. 207 — a copy only.
• Transliteration on the record: H. Sáenz (2019-01-31), revised by E. Jiménez (2020).
• Catalogue: Lambert & Millard, Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets in the Kouyunjik Collection, p. 10; Borger, Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur (BorgerKat), "CT 51 207."
• Note on the record: "// K.8149 [WGL]" — Lambert marked a parallel to another Nineveh fragment; a parallel is not an edition, and none is claimed here.
• Door on the face: Lambert, "Three Literary Prayers of the Babylonians," AfO 19 (1960), pp. 47–66, edited three Marduk prayers in English (the door that closed K.8003 in wave A1). This prayer is not among the references on this tablet's record, and no edition was located; the AfO 19 contents eyeball stands in the print-check wave. If this text stands among them, the working label falls.

The witness

One fragment: BM.121103, Neo-Assyrian script, British Museum — "prayer for a morning libation to Marduk, 6 + 1 lines of inscription." CDLI number on the live record: P286068. No photograph on the record.

What it says

Eight lines carry the whole rite. The prayer opens with its command doubled — muḫur, "Receive it!" — to Marduk, the great lord, who dwells in heaven. Then the rubric names the act: this is the ikrib šarāqi, the prayer of sprinkling, belonging to the A₂.GU₂.ZI.GA, the morning water. The prayer was said at dawn, over water sprinkled for the god, and the fragment keeps the opening of it — the call, the god's name, the hour.

How to read this document

Transliteration exactly as the record serves it. Counts: 8 line-units — 0 whole, 4 part, 4 fragments, 0 invented.

The reading

Obverse

1. mu-hur {d}AMAR.UTU EN GAL-u mu-hur {d}AMAR#.UTU# x […] "Receive it, Marduk, great lord! Receive it, Marduk […]"

2. a-šib AN-e še-ra an-na-a mu-hur x […] "Dweller in heaven, O Šera(?) of heaven — receive it […]" (the name is uncertain)

3. ik-rib sa-ra-qi₂ ša₂ A₂.GU₂.[ZI.GA? …] "Prayer of the sprinkling of the morning […]"

4. mu-hur EN GAL-u# […] "Receive it, great lord […]"

5. {d}AM[AR.UTU …] "Mar[duk …]" (traces)

6. x […] (traces only)

Reverse

1′. x […] (traces only)

2′. lit-ta-ʾ-i[d …] "May he be praised […]" (traces)

Doors and flags

• Doors standing: Lambert, AfO 19 (1960) contents · the K.8149 parallel noted by Lambert on this record.
• Dragon scan: none. No serpent wording of any kind stands on this witness.

Built 2026-10-22 from a fresh live eBL fetch.

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

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