11 Against the gods they revolted
12 ...[1] violence ...[1]
13 Violently they wept for Babylon[4]
14 very much they wept.
15 And in the midst

(The rest is wanting.)

[Footnote 1: Lacunae.]

[Footnote 2: The god of "no rule," or lawlessness.]

[Footnote 3: The builders continued to build.]

[Footnote 4: Lamentations of the gods for the Babylonians.]

AN ACCADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALM

TRANSLATED BY REV. A.H. SAYCE, M.A.

The following psalm for remission of sins is remarkable alike for its
deeply spiritual tone and for its antiquity. As it is written in Accadian,
its composition must be referred to a date anterior to the seventeenth
century B.C., when that language became extinct. An Assyrian interlinear
translation is attached to most of the lines; some, however, are left
untranslated. The tablet is unfortunately broken in the middle, causing a
lacuna in the text. Similarities will be noticed between the language of
the psalm and that of the Psalms of the Old Testament, and one passage
reminds us strongly of the words of Christ in St. Matthew xviii. 22.
Seven, it must be remembered, was a sacred number among the Accadians.
Accadian poetry was characterized by a parallelism of ideas and clauses;
and as this was imitated, both by the Assyrians and by the Jews, the
striking resemblance between the form of Accadian and Hebrew poetry can be
accounted for.

Some of the lines in the middle of the psalm have been previously
translated by Mr. Fox Talbot, in the "Transactions of the Society of
Biblical Archaeology," Vol. II, p. 60, and Prof. Schrader in his
"_Hollenfahrt der Istar_," pp. 90-95.

A copy of the text is given in the fourth volume of the "Cuneiform
Inscriptions of Western Asia," plate 10.

AN ACCADIAN PENITENTIAL PSALM

OBVERSE OF TABLET

1 The heart of my Lord[1] was wroth: to his place may he
return.
2 From the man that (sinned) unknowingly to his place may
(my) god return.
3 From him that (sinned) unknowingly to her place may
(the) goddess return.
4 May God who knoweth (that) he knew not to his place
return.
5 May the goddess[2] who knoweth (that) he knew not to
her place return.
6 May the heart of my god to his place return.
7 May the heart of my goddess to his place return.
8 May my god and my goddess (unto their place) return.
9 May god (unto his place) return.
10 May the goddess (unto her place return).
11 The transgression (t