1 "Length of days
2 long lasting years
3 a strong sword
4 a long life
5 extended years of glory
6 pre-eminence among Kings
7 grant ye to the King my Lord,
8 who has given such gifts
9 to his gods!
10 The bounds vast and wide
11 of his Empire
12 and of his Rule,
13 may he enlarge and may he complete!
14 Holding over all Kings supremacy
15 and royalty and empire
16 may he attain to gray hairs
17 and old age!
18 And after the life of these days,
19 in the feasts of the silver mountain,[2] the heavenly Courts
20 the abodes of blessedness:
21 and in the Light
22 of the _Happy Fields,_
23 may he dwell a life
24 eternal, holy
25 in the presence
26 of the gods
27 who inhabit Assyria!"
[Footnote 1: From the "Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.," vol. i. p. 107. The
original is in "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," vol. iii. pl.
66.]
[Footnote 2: The Assyrian Olympus. The epithet "silver" was doubtless
suggested by some snowy inaccessible peak, the supposed dwelling-place of
the gods.]
SHORT PRAYER FOR THE SOUL OF A DYING MAN [Footnote: "Trans. Soc. Bib.
Arch.," vol. ii. p. 20.]
1 Like a bird may it fly to a lofty place!
2 To the holy hands of its god, may it ascend!