Ludlul bēl nēmeqi

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Ludlul bēl nēmeqi ( Akkadian : "I will praise the Lord of Wisdom") is a Babylonian poetry, which is about the misunderstood suffering and the salvation of a believer. The text is also referred to as "Babylonian Job " or the poetry of the "righteous suffering". Christopher B. Hays, on the other hand, draws parallels with the visitation of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel .

Text transmission

The seal is recorded on four cuneiform tablets . Numerous versions of the text have survived, which shows its popularity:

  • Birmingham 1982.A3115 from the Henry Wellcome collection , formerly in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum , in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery since the 1980s . On the board is the beginning of board 1 (26 lines). The origin of the tablet is unknown.
  • British Museum, BM 32214 (Version J after WG Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960)
  • British Museum, BM 32208+, an almost complete text composed of twelve fragments (BM 32214, BM 32378, BM 32449, BM 32659, BM 32694, reverse BM 32208, BM 32371) in neo-Babylonian script
  • K 9392 + K 9810 (Version KK according to WG Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960)
  • Fragments K 9392 and K 9810
  • ND 5485 + 5497/20 (IM 67628), MS gg to Lenz and Amar
  • an almost complete series of tables from Sippar .
  • Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin, VAT 1100 (Version N according to WG Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960)
  • Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin, VAT 11565 (Version Z based on WG Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960)
  • Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin, fragment VAT 10522

overview

The poem begins with a hymn in which the speaker announces his intention to praise the Babylonian god Marduk as the "Lord of Wisdom". The opening words Ludlul bēl nēmeqi ("I will praise the Lord of Wisdom") are used as titles, as in other works of Mesopotamian literature. The hymn describes Marduk as an angry but benevolent god who is superior to all other gods. Marduk is wild in the night, but gracious during the day (I, 2), his anger is devastating like the storm, but his breath sweet as morning air (I, 5-6), his anger is unsurpassed, his anger like a flood, but his heart contemplates and his mind is kind. The heavens cannot withstand his might, but his gentle hand guards the dying. When he is angry, the protective gods ( d LAMMA) leave, but he takes care of those whom their god has rejected (I, 16).

Then the speaker describes the worst suffering and its turning point, which is brought about by Marduk alone. The usual Mesopotamian practices of coping with suffering ( omina , loosening rituals) fail; However, Marduk heralds the turnaround in dreams and finally carries it out. At the end the speaker is accepted back into the Babylonian cult community, and a Marduklob follows, in which all Babylonians are now included.

For interpretation

The speaker's reflection on his suffering in II 12-48 can be considered the core of the poetry , which in turn is divided into three parts: In II 12-32 he states that, despite fulfilling all religious duties, he feels like someone who does Did not worship gods; then in II 33-38 he asks whether what people do with good will please the gods at all; he states that the advice of the gods is not understandable for people (II 36-38); in II 39-48 it is stated that there is no discernible meaning in human behavior (II 48).

Against the background of the Mesopotamian view that people's behavior is entirely determined by the gods, poetry processes the insight that a way of life according to the standards of traditional piety does not always lead to people gaining the favor of the gods and thus from suffering be preserved. Rather, it is not clear to people what the gods like and what they want. It is even expected that man sins in the eyes of the gods precisely because he strives for a life that is pleasing to the gods (II 33-35). Traditional piety thus does not offer a yardstick by which to make sense of human well-being or suffering.

Since the poetry shows how Marduk brings about the turning point of suffering without any human intervention, and by beginning and ending with a Marduklob, its answer to the problem mentioned is apparently that man despite a lack of insight into the will of the gods and into the mind can rely on Marduk's power and goodness of his own demise, even in the deepest sorrow. Ludlul bēl nēmeqi can thus be characterized as "didactic poetry for the expansion and deepening of personal martial piety".

It is questionable whether the reflection on the unknowability of the divine will (II 33ff.) Contains an accusation against the gods, and to what extent one can speak of the "suffering of the righteous" with regard to the subject of Ludlul bēl nēmeqi . Regarding the second question, it must be taken into account that, in contrast to the biblical Job, the speaker does not insist on his innocence, but rather admits the possibility of an unwanted sin - due to a lack of insight into the standards of the gods.

To the historical classification

According to III 42 the speaker is called Šubši-mešre-Šakkan . In fact, a dignitary with this name is known from the reign of Nazi Maruttaš (approx. 1307–1282). A ration text from Nippur from the 4th year of Nazimarutaš's reign mentions Šubši-mešre-Šakkan, according to a text from Ur from the 16th year of Nazimurutaš's reign he was "governor of the country" (lúgar kur). However, the hymn is not an authentic autobiographical description, but the idealized representation of a person who lives through exemplary severe suffering and is saved from it. If the name refers to the historical Šubši-mešre-Šakkan, the creation of the poem must fall in the period between its lifetime and the oldest surviving texts, which date from the Neo-Assyrian period (9th-8th centuries BC). Usually it is in the late 2nd millennium BC. Dated.

Due to the high esteem of Marduk and his sanctuary, to which the speaker returns after the end of suffering, Babylon or its vicinity is to be assumed as the place of origin .

Ludlul bēl nēmeqi contains a number of echoes of the Babylonian epic of creation, Enūma eliš , so that knowledge of the epic, or at least a common religious background, can be assumed. If in the Enūma eliš Marduk is portrayed as king of the gods and world creator, the theology of Ludlul bēl nēmeqi can be characterized as "almost the logical extension of Marduk's lordship over creation and history into the domain of individual lives".

literature

Text output

  • Amar Annus / Alan Lenzi (eds.), Ludlul bēl nēmeqi. The Standard Babylonian Poem of the Righteous Sufferer. Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, State archives of Assyria cuneiform texts 7. Helsinki 2010.

Translations

  • German:
    • Wolfram von Soden , The Just Suffering One. Ludlul bēl nēmeqi - "I will praise the Lord of Wisdom", in: Otto Kaiser (Ed.), Texts from the Environment of the Old Testament Vol. 3, Gütersloh, Mohn 1990-1997, pp. 110-135.
  • English
    • Benjamin R. Foster, The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer, in: (ders.) Before the Muses. An Anthology of Akkadian literature (3rd edition). Bethesda, CDL Press 2005, pp. 392-409.
    • AR George / FNH Al-Rawi, Tablets from the Sippar Library VII. Three Wisdom Texts. Iraq 60, 1998, 187-201.
    • WG Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960. Reprinted by Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns 1996, 21-62.
    • DJ Wiseman, A New Text of the Babylonian Poem of the Righteous Sufferer, " Anatolian Studies 30, 1980, 101-107.

Secondary literature

  • Rainer Albertz , Ludlul bēl nēmeqi - a didactic poem for the expansion and deepening of personal martial piety, in: R. Albertz, Geschichte und Theologie. Studies on the exegesis of the Old Testament and on the religious history of Israel, supplements to the journal for the Old Testament Science 326, Berlin (inter alia) 2003, pp. 85-105.
  • Alan Lenz / Amar Annus, A Six-Column Babylonian Tablet of Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi and the Reconstruction of Tablet IV. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 70/2, 2011, 181-205.
  • Meik Gerhards , praise of the incomprehensible God. Approach to the Babylonian poetry Ludlul bēl nēmeqi , in: M. Gerhards, Der undefinbaren Gott, Rostocker Theologische Studien 24, Berlin (among others). 2011, pp. 93–152. - Updated version: Meik Gerhards, God and Suffering. Answers from the Babylonian poetry Ludlul bēl nēmeqi and the biblical Book of Job, contributions to the study of the Old Testament and ancient Judaism 60, Frankfurt (M.) (inter alia) 2017, pp. 39-75.
  • W. Horowitz / WG Lambert, A New Exemplar of Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi Tablet I from Birmingham. Iraq 64, 2002, 237-245.
  • William Moran, The Babylonian Job, in: W. Moran (Ed.), The Most Magic Word. Essays on Babylonian and Biblical Literature. The Catholic Bible Quarterly, Monograph Series 35, Washington 2002, 182-200.
  • Hermann Spieckermann , Ludlul bēl nēmeqi and the question of God's justice, in: H. Spieckermann, God's love for Israel. Studies on the theology of the Old Testament, research on the Old Testament 33, Tübingen 2001, pp. 103–118.

Web links

Dubbing

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ So in the title of the essay by W. Moran: "The Babylonian Job".
  2. ^ So in the title of the translation by W. v. Sod.
  3. ↑ Christopher B. Hays, Chirps from the Dust: The Affliction of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:30 in Its Ancient near Eastern Context. Journal of Biblical Literature 126/2, 2007, 305-325
  4. ↑ W. Horowitz / WG Lambert, A New Copy of Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi Tablet I from Birmingham. Iraq 64, 2002, 237
  5. ^ Alan Lenz / Amar Annus, A six-column Babylonian Tablet of Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi and the Reconstruction of Tablet IV. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 70/2, 2011, 181-20
  6. ↑ Donald John Wiseman / J. Black, Literary Texts from the Temple of Nabu. Cuneiform texts from Nimrud 4. The British School of Archeology in Iraq 1996, No. 201
  7. ^ Alan Lenz / Amar Annus, A six-column Babylonian Tablet of Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi and the Reconstruction of Tablet IV. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 70/2, 2011, 185
  8. ^ AR George / FNH Al-Rawi, Tablets from the Sippar Library VII, Three Wisdom Texts. Iraq 60, 1998, 187-201
  9. ↑ So already in the title of R. Albertz, Ludlul; on this interpretation cf. also Meik Gerhards , Praise of the incomprehensible God, which the previous presentation in the main text largely follows.
  10. ^ So H. Spieckermann, Ludlul, p. 111f.
  11. ↑ According to H. Spieckermann, Ludlul, p. 110, is to be ascribed to the "knowledge value"; see. also R. Albertz, Ludlul, p. 103; also M. Gerhards, Lob, pp. 114–116. Gerhards therefore considers it misleading to refer to Ludlul bēl nēmeqi as "poetry of the righteous who suffer" or the like.
  12. ^ Alan Lenz / Amar Annus, A six-column Babylonian Tablet of Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi and the Reconstruction of Tablet IV. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 70/2, 2011, 191
  13. ↑ Cf. u. a. M. Gerhards, Lob, pp. 97f.
  14. ↑ cf. M. Gerhards, Praise of the incomprehensible God. Approach to the Babylonian poetry Ludlul bēl nēmeqi , in: M. Gerhards, Der undefinbaren Gott, Rostocker Theologische Studien 24, Berlin (among others). 2011, p. 130, fn. 81
  15. ^ So W. Moran, Job, p. 198.