Ludlul bēl nēmeqi

Ludlul Bel nēmeqi ( Akkadian: " prices, I will bless the Lord of Wisdom" ) is a Babylonian seal in which it comes to the misunderstood suffering and the salvation of a believer. The text is also referred to as the " Babylonian Job " or a seal from the " righteous sufferer ". Hays, however, draws parallels to the visitation of Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel ..

• 6.1 setting

Textual tradition

The seal is recorded on four cuneiform tablets. There are numerous versions of the text delivers what its popularity has:

• Birmingham 1982.A3115 from the collection of Henry Wellcome, formerly in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, since the 1980s in Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery. On the table there is the beginning of the panel 1 (26 rows). The origin of the panel is unknown.
• British Museum, BM 32214 (Version J by WG Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960)
• British Museum, BM 32208 , one of twelve fragments (BM 32214, BM 32378, BM 32449, BM 32659, BM 32694, BM 32208 revers, BM 32371 ) composed almost complete text in neubabylonischem writing ductus
• K 9392 K 9810 (Version KK by WG Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960)
• Fragments K 9392 and K 9810
• ND 5485 5497 / 20 (IM 67628 ), MS gg according to Lenz and Amar
• An almost complete set of plates from Sippar.
• Middle East Museum Berlin, £ 1100 ( Version N by WG Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960)
• Middle East Museum Berlin, VAT 11565 (Version Z by WG Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford, 1960)
• Middle East Museum Berlin, Fragment £ 10522

Overview

The seal begins with a hymn, in which the speaker manifests his intention to praise the Babylonian god Marduk as the " Lord of Wisdom". The input words Ludlul Bel nēmeqi ( " prices, I will bless the Lord of Wisdom" ) are used at the same time as the title as in other works of Mesopotamian literature. The hymn describes Marduk as angry, but benevolent in the heart of God, who is superior to all other gods. Marduk is wild at night, but during the day graciously ( I, 2), his anger is devastating as the storm, but his breath of air sweet as morning air (I, 5-6), his wrath is second to none, his anger like a flood, but their heart stop and his mind is friendly. The sky can not withstand his power, but his gentle hand guards the dying. If he's angry, soft protective gods ( dLAMMA ) from here, but he takes those to which their God has violated (I, 16).

Then the speaker describes heaviest suffering and its reversal, which is caused solely by Marduk. The usual Mesopotamian practices of coping with suffering ( Omina, solvents rituals ) fail; However, Marduk announces the sufferings turning in dreams and leads finally made ​​. At the end of the speaker is picked up again in the Babylonian cult community, and it follows a Marduklob, in the now all Babylonians are included.

For the interpretation

As the core of the seal, the reflection of the speaker can be suffering in II 12-48 are, in turn, is divided into three parts: In II 12-32 he notes that, despite fulfilling all religious obligations was made to him as someone who has the has not worshiped gods; then he puts in 33-38 II the question of whether what people do with good will, the gods like at all, he notes that the counsel of the gods for the people is not reasonable (II 36-38); in II 39-48 is found that in the human endure no discernable sense ( II 48).

Against the background of the Mesopotamian view that the welfare of the people is consistently determined by the gods, the seal processes the realization that a life change by the standards of traditional piety does not always leads to that people earn the favor of the gods and thus from suffering be preserved. Rather, it is not transparent to the people what the gods like and what they want. It will even reckon with the possibility that man precisely by sin in the eyes of the gods, that he endeavors to a life pleasing to the gods (II 33-35 ). The traditional piety therefore does not scale in order to make sense in human well-being or suffering.

By representing the seal as Marduk causes the sufferings turn without any human intervention, and by starting with a Marduklob and closes its answer to the above problem appears to be that that man, despite a lack of insight into the will of the gods and in the sense can rely on its own -being on Marduk power and goodness, and even still in the deepest sorrow. Can nēmeqi Ludlul Bel thus be characterized as " didactic poetry to the spread and deepening of personal Mardukfrömmigkeit ".

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 in regard to the subject matter of Ludlul Bel nēmeqi the " suffering of the righteous." The second question has to be considered after all, that the speaker, in contrast to the biblical Job does not insist on his innocence, but the possibility of an unintentional sin - due to lack of insight into the standards of the Gods - quite grants.

For historical classification

After III 42 the speaker is named subsidiarity mešre - Šakkan. In fact, from the reign of Nazi Maruttaš (approx. 1307-1282 ), a dignitary of that name known. A rations mentioned text from Nippur in 4th year of government Nazimarutaš subsidiarity mešre - Šakkan, based on a text from Ur of the 16th year of the reign of Nazimurutaš he was " Governor of the country" ( Lugar short ). However, the hymn is not an authentic autobiographical narrative, but the idealized representation of a man who lived through exemplary heaviest suffering and saved it. Should the names refer to the historical subsidiarity mešre - Šakkan, the emergence of poetry in the period between its lifetime and the oldest surviving texts must drop the ( BC 9th - 8th century ) come from Neo-Assyrian period. It is usually dated to the late 2nd millennium BC.

Due to the high estimate of Marduk and his sanctuary, to the returns of the speakers after suffering turn, is assumed to be origin Babylon or radius.

Ludlul Bel nēmeqi contains a number of echoes of the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elis is to assume that the knowledge of the epic, or at least a common religious background. If, in the Enuma Eliš Marduk represented as king of the gods and creator of the world, then the theology of Ludlul Bel nēmeqi as "almost the logical extension of Marduk 's lordship over creation and history into the domain of individual lives" are characterized.