THE WITCHCRAFT SERIES MAQLÛ Press SBL Writings from the Ancient World Theodore J. Lewis, General Editor Associate Editors Daniel Fleming Theo van den Hout Martti Nissinen William Schniedewind Mark S. Smith Emily Teeter Press Number 37 The Witchcraft Series Maqlû SBLVolume Editor: Martin Worthington THE WITCHCRAFT SERIES MAQLÛ by Tzvi Abusch Press SBL Press SBLAtlanta, Georgia THE WITCHCRAFT SERIES MAQLÛ Copyright 2015 by SBL Press All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copy- right Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Society of Biblical Literature, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 USA. Library of Congress Control Number: 2015932765 ISBN: 978-1-628370-81-2 Press Printed on acid-free, recycled paper conforming to ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) and ISO 9706:1994 standards for paper permanence. SBL For my very dear friends Benjy, Steve, and Kathryn Press SBL Press SBL CONTENTS Series Editor’s Foreword ix Preface xi Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 Maqlû I 44 Maqlû II 54 Maqlû III 70 Maqlû IV 84 Maqlû V 100 Maqlû VI 114 Maqlû VII 126 Maqlû VIII 140 Maqlû Ritual Tablet 150 Notes 169 Bibliography Press 197 SBL vii Press SBL SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD Writings from the Ancient World is designed to provide up-to-date, readable English translations of writings recovered from the ancient Near East. The series is intended to serve the interests of general readers, students, and educators who wish to explore the ancient Near Eastern roots of Western civi- lization or to compare these earliest written expressions of human thought and activity with writings from other parts of the world. It should also be useful to scholars in the humanities or social sciences who need clear, reliable translations of ancient Near Eastern materials for comparative purposes. Specialists in par- ticular areas of the ancient Near East who need access to texts in the scripts and languages of other areas will also find these translations helpful. Given the wide range of materials translated in the series, different volumes will appeal to differ- ent interests. However, these translations make available to all readers of English the world’s earliest traditions as well as valuable sources of information on daily life, history, religion, and the like in the preclassical world. The translators of the various volumes in this series are specialists in the particular languages and have based their work on the original sources and the most recent research. In their translations they attempt to convey as much as pos- sible of the original texts in fluent, current English. In the introductions, notes, glossaries, maps, and chronological tables, they aim to provide the essential information for an appreciation of these ancient documents. Covering the period from the invention of writing (by 3000 B.C.E.) down to the conquests of Alexander the Great (ca. 330 B.C.E.), the ancient Near East comprised northeast Africa and southwest Asia. The cultures represented within these limits include especially Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Ugaritic, Aramean, Phoenician, and Israelite.Press It is hoped that Writings from the Ancient World will eventually produce translations of most of the many different genres attested in these cultures: letters (official and private), myths, diplomatic documents, hymns, law collections, monumental inscriptions, tales, and adminis- trative records, to mention but a few. The Society of Biblical Literature provided significant funding for the Writ- ings from the SBLAncient World series. In addition, authors have benefited from ix x THE WITCHCRAFT SERIES MAQLÛ working in research collections in their respective institutions and beyond. Were it not for such support, the arduous tasks of preparation, translation, editing, and publication could not have been accomplished or even undertaken. It is the hope of all who have worked on these texts or supported this work that Writings from the Ancient World will open up new horizons and deepen the humanity of all who read these volumes. Theodore J. Lewis The Johns Hopkins University Press SBL PREFACE My edition of Maqlû has been in the works for a long time. I started studying the tablets and fragments of Maqlû and searching for new texts around 1970 and have pursued this endeavor, on and off, for many years. With few exceptions, I have examined all the original tablets and/or their pho- tographs. I cannot emphasize strongly enough how much the edition has benefited from the assistance and cooperation of a number of colleagues and institu- tions. The reader interested in the details of my indebtedness should consult the preface to my full scientific edition The Magical Ceremony Maqlû: A Critical Edition (Ancient Magic and Divination; Leiden: Brill). All the same, here I would mention by name those who made repeated contribu- tions through identifications, photographs, transliterations, and collations that they generously shared with me. They are the late Rykle Borger, Markham J. Geller, the late Wilfred G. Lambert, Erle Leichty, Christopher Walker, and especially Daniel Schwemer.1 I would be remiss if I did not mention here also the late Frederick W. Geers, among whose copies at the Oriental Institute I identified some Maqlû fragments. Maqlû tablets and fragments are found in a number of museums, and I express my gratitude to the Middle East Department (formerly Western Asiatic Antiquities) of the British Museum; the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin; the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago; the Babylonian Col- lection, University of Pennsylvania; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the Anadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesi, Ankara; the İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri, Istanbul. Press I am indebted to and express my sincerest thanks to several graduate stu- dents in the Bible and Ancient Near East program of Brandeis University who 1. I would also mention here that some of the translations in this volume are the result of my collaboration with Daniel Schwemer some years ago on a German translation of Maqlû for TUAT NF 4 (2008). SBL xi xii THE WITCHCRAFT SERIES MAQLÛ worked with me on the WAW edition of Maqlû. They are Molly DeMarco,2 Bronson Brown-deVost,3 Sung-Chun Kim,4 and Robert McChesney.5 Their work was supported by the Theodore and Jane Norman Awards for Faculty Scholarship of Brandeis University, the GTR/GSFR fund of the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and the graduate fellowship program; I thank Brandeis University for its support. I thank Martin Worthington, the editor of the volume, for his careful reading of the manuscript and for his numerous editorial notes. Those of his suggestions (as well as the suggestions of others) that I have incorporated have improved the volume. Any mistakes or defects in this volume are my responsibility alone. I thank Theodore Lewis, the series editor of WAW, for inviting me to contribute an edition of Maqlû to WAW. I very much appreciate his patience and support. I am grateful to Billie Jean Collins and the SBL WAW produc- tion team for their work on this volume. Press 2. Molly DeMarco reviewed with me the transcription and translation and did most of the inputting and formatting of the transcription; she also worked with me on a preliminary bibliography. 3. Bronson Brown-deVost completed inputting and formatting the transcription, kept track of the many things that had to be included in the volume, and assisted with proofreading. 4. Sung-Chun Kim formatted the bibliographies and reviewed them for omissions and mistakes. 5. Robert McChesneySBL read through the first and second proofs of the volume. ABBREVIATIONS AfO Archiv für Orientforschung AfOB Archiv für Orientforschung Beiheft AHw Wolfram von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch. 3 vols. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1959–81 AMD Ancient Magic and Divination ANEM Ancient Near Eastern Monographs AnOr Analecta Orientalia AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament ArOr Archiv Orientální AS Assyriological Studies ASSF Acta Societas Scientiarum Fennicae BA Beiträge zur Assyriologie (und semitischen Sprachwissen- schaft) BaF Baghdader Forschungen BAL2 Rykle Borger, Babylonisch-assyrische Lesestücke. 2nd ed. AnOr 54. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1979 BibInt Biblical Interpretation Series BibOr Biblica et Orientalia BJS Brown Judaic Studies BPOA Biblioteca del Proximo Oriente Antiguo CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the Uni- versity of Chicago. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1956–2010 CM Cuneiform Monographs CMAWR Tzvi Abusch and DanielPress Schwemer, Corpus of Mesopota- mian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals. Vol. 1–. AMD 8/1–. Leiden: Brill, 2011– CNIP Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications CTN Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud GAG Wolfram von Soden, Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik. SBL2nd ed. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1969 xiii xiv THE WITCHCRAFT SERIES MAQLÛ HSS Harvard Semitic Studies HTR Harvard Theological Review JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies JSRC Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture KAL Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts KAR E. Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religiösen Inhalts. WVDOG 28 and 34. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1915–23 LSS Leipziger semitische