Observations placeholder
Nippur - Temple hymn
Identifier
022238
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Nippur is known is Sumerian: as Nibru, often logographically recorded as, EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;" and in Akkadian: Nibbur.
It was the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god Enlil, the "Lord Wind," ruler of the cosmos, subject to An alone.
A description of the experience
Temple hymns
25-33. O ……, shrine where destiny is determined, ……, foundation, raised with a ziqqurat, ……, settlement of Enlil, your ……, your right and your left are Sumer and Akkad. House of Enlil, your interior is cool, your exterior determines destiny. Your door-jambs and architrave are a mountain summit, your projecting pilasters a dignified mountain. Your peak is a …… peak of your princely platform. Your base serves heaven and earth.
34-37. Your prince, the great prince Enlil, the good lord, the lord of the limits of heaven, the lord who determines destiny, the Great Mountain Enlil, has erected a house in your precinct, O shrine Nibru, and taken his seat upon your dais.
38. 13 lines: the house of Enlil in Nibru.
39-46. O Tummal, exceedingly worthy of the princely divine powers, inspiring awe and dread! Foundation, your pure lustration extends over the abzu. Primeval city, reedbed green with old reeds and new shoots, your interior is a mountain of abundance built in plenitude. At your feast held in the month of the New Year, you are wondrously adorned as the great lady of Ki-ur rivals Enlil. Your princess, Mother Ninlil, the beloved wife of Nunamnir, has erected a house in your precinct, O E-Tummal (Tummal House), and taken a place upon your dais.
47. 8 lines: the house of Ninlil in Nibru.
48-56. O E-melem-ḫuš (House of terrifying radiance) exuding great awesomeness, Eš-maḫ (Magnificent shrine), to which princely divine powers were sent from heaven, storehouse of Enlil founded for the primeval divine powers, worthy of nobility, lifting your head in princeship, counsellor of E-kur, parapeted buttress, your house …… the platform with heaven. The decisions at its place of reaching the great judgment -- the river of the ordeal -- let the just live and consign to darkness the hearts that are evil. In your great place fit for pure lustration and the rites of išib priests, you dine with Lord Nunamnir.
57-59. Your prince, the prince who is the counsellor of Enlil and worthy of Eš-maḫ, the udug demon of E-kur, the leader Nuska, has erected a house in your precinct, O house of Enlil, and taken his seat upon your dais.
60. 12 lines: the house of Nuska in Nibru.
61-68. O E-me-ur-ana (House which gathers the divine powers of heaven) standing in a great place, the just divine powers which the warrior ……, strength of battle, heroic mace, carrier of the quiver, mighty bustling brick building, your foundation is eternal. Founded by the primeval lord, with decisions which belong to the princely divine powers, holy soil filling the mountain, lifting your head among the princes, magnificent house, the wonder coming from you is like the sun whose glow spreads. E-šu-me-ša (House which …… the divine powers), Enlil has instilled your name with terrifying awesomeness.
69-75. Your prince, the great ……, the warrior whose strength is boundless, the great ruler for Enlil, the noble who rivals heaven and earth, the provisioning (?) seal-keeper of Father Enlil who makes the great divine powers perfect, the ……, the leader for Father Enlil, the foremost, the lion engendered by the Great Mountain, who destroys the hostile lands for Enlil, Lord Ninurta, has erected a house in your precinct, O E-šu-me-ša, and taken his seat upon your dais.