A Prayer to Nabu

Based on data prepared by Frauke Weiershäuser and Jamie Novotny for MOCCI, which is funded by LMU Munich and the Humboldt Foundation. The project also received support from the Gerda Henkel Foundation. The source edition is RIBo Nebuchadnezzar II C212 ii 16–29, released under CC BY-SA 3.0; this adaptation uses the same license, with modernized English and paragraph divisions.

A Prayer to Nabu is the complete concluding prayer from a building inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II. The preceding account of his rebuilding work belongs to the surrounding inscription. The inscription was written on clay cylinders from Borsippa, where the king restored Nabu’s temple tower, and the king asks for long life, a secure reign, victory, and Nabu’s intervention before Marduk, Nabu’s father.¹

The English distinguishes Nabu’s writing board from the clay cylinders that preserve the prayer. The board belongs to the divine scribe in the prayer itself. “Heaven and the netherworld” follows the interpretation of the paired names as the upper and lower regions of the cosmos, while the request to record very old age keeps the prayer’s specific concern with longevity.²

The closing request treats the king’s name and title as words that Nabu is asked to speak before Marduk. The statement that Nebuchadnezzar is truly king follows the affirmative interpretation, although the same expression can also express a wish that he may be king; the description of him as one who provides concerns his responsibilities as ruler.³ Another translation also follows the affirmative reading of the closing statement.⁴