]

COLUMN III

1 his altar, an altar of Royalty;
2 an altar of Lordship,
3 (for) the Chief of the gods, the Prince Merodach,
4 whose fashion the former Prince
5 had fashioned in silver,
6 with bright gold accurately weighed out
7 I overlaid.
8 Beautiful things for the temple Bit-Saggatu
9 seen at its very summit,
10 the shrine of Merodach, with statues and marbles
11 I embellished
12 as the stars of heaven.
13 The fanes of Babylon
14 I built, I adorned.
15 Of the house, the foundation of the heaven and earth,
16 I reared the summit
17 with blocks of noble lapis lazuli:
18 to the construction of Bit-Saggatu
19 my heart uplifted me;
20 in abundance I wrought
21 the best of my pine trees
22 which from Lebanon
23 together with tall _Babil-_wood I brought,
24 for the portico of the temple of Merodach:
25 the shrine of his Lordship
26 I made good, and interior walls
27 with pine and tall cedar woods:
28 the portico of the temple of Merodach,
29 with brilliant gold I caused to cover,
30 the lower thresholds, the cedar awnings,
31 with gold and precious stones
32 I embellished:
33 in the erection of Bit-Saggatu
34 I proceeded: I supplicated
35 the King of gods, the Lord of Lords:
36 in Borsippa, the city of his loftiness,
37,38 I raised Bit-Zida: a durable house
39 in the midst thereof I caused to be made.
40 With silver, gold, precious stones,
41 bronze, _ummakana_ and pine woods,
42 those thresholds I completed:
43 the pine wood portico
44 of the shrine of Nebo
45 with gold I caused to cover,
46 the pine wood portico of the gate of the temple of
Merodach
47 I caused to overlay with bright silver.
48 The bulls and columns of the gate of the shrine
49 the thresholds, the _sigari_ of _ri-_wood, conduits
50 of _Babnaku_ wood and their statues
51 with cedar wood awnings
52 of lofty building,
53 and silver, I adorned.
54 The avenues of the shrine
55 and the approach to the house,
56 of conspicuous brick
57 sanctuaries in its midst
58 with perforated silver work.
59 Bulls, columns, doorways,
60,61 in marble beautifully I built;
62,63 I erected a shrine and with rows
64 of wreathed work I filled it:
65 the fanes of Borsippa
66 I made and embellished;
67 the temple of the seven spheres
68 ...[1]
69 with bricks of noble lapis lazuli
70 I reared its summit:
71 the tabernacle of Nahr-kanul
72 the chariot of his grea