Cuneiform 103 · Chapter 18

Warm-up · 6 quick retrievals from earlier chapters

goddess — draw it, then check
𒈹 [Ištar] · INANNA · the goddess's reed-bundle standard — written INANNA, spoken Ištar in Akkadian mouths ↩
𒍝 — read it
[ṣa] — bead · ZA · veteran — ZA gains [ṣa]: uṣṣab, "it will grow" — interest's own syllable ↩
𒁺 [ra] — what does it mean?
go · DU · veteran — DU gains [ra₂]: the third sign of the bone-compound ↩
path — draw it, then check
𒄊 [eṣemtum] · GIR3 · the foot, the path; never voiced alone here — with PAD.DU it writes eṣemtum, "bone" ↩
𒋼 — read it
[te] — approach · TE · to approach in the lists ↩
𒇉 [id] — what does it mean?
the deep · ENGUR · the sweet waters under the earth (engur); with A before it one word — written ID₂, spoken Id: the River ↩

The king’s invitation

Near the stele’s end, Hammurapi stops legislating and does something stranger: he addresses YOU. Not the courts, not the gods — the future person standing before the stone with a grievance and, crucially, someone who can read. This chapter answers him.

Batch nineteen — the last

Sign	Name	Key	Reads	Means	Notes
𒅈	AR	praise	[ar]	praise, glory in the lists	the syllable of ma-ḫa-ar, "before" — standing you before the king
𒌫	UR₂	lap	[ur]	the lap — a body's base; foundations	it closes li-mu-ur₂, "let him SEE" — the seeing that this whole school exists for
𒀩	ALAN	statue	[ṣalmum]	the statue — a person's standing image	written ALAN, spoken ṣalmum: the king's stone self, before which the wronged man is told to stand
𒆪	KU	seize	[qu]	—	veteran — 102's seizing-sign, pressed to qu

The invitation

Every sign taught, every form met. Read what the stone has been waiting four thousand years to say to you:

𒀀 𒉿 𒈝 𒄩 𒀊 𒈝a-wi-lum ḫa-ab-lumawīlum ḫablum — "Let the wronged man"

𒊭 𒀀 𒉿 𒌓ša a-wa-tamša awātam — "who a case…"

𒄿 𒊏 𒀸 𒋗 𒌑i-ra-aš-šu-uiraššû — "…has,"

𒀀 𒈾 𒈠 𒄩 𒅈 𒀩𒅀a-na ma-ḫa-ar ṢALMĪ-iaana maḫar ṣalmīya — "before my image —"

𒈗 𒈪 𒊭 𒊑 𒅎ŠAR mi-ša-ri-imšar mīšarim — "the king of justice —"

𒇷 𒅋 𒇷 𒅅 𒈠li-il-li-ik-malillikma — "come, and"

𒈾 𒊒 𒄿na-ru-inarûya — "my stele,"

𒊭 𒀜 𒊏 𒄠ša-aṭ-ra-amšaṭram — "the inscribed,"

𒇷 𒅖 𒋫 𒀾 𒋛 𒈠li-iš-ta-as-si-malištassima — "let him have read aloud, and"

𒀀 𒉿 𒋾 𒅀a-wa-ti-iaawâtīya — "my words,"

𒋗 𒆪 𒊏 𒁴šu-qu-ra-timšūqurātim — "the precious,"

𒇷 𒅖 𒈨 𒈠li-iš-me-mališmēma — "let him hear, and"

𒈾 𒊒 𒄿 𒀀 𒉿 𒌓na-ru-i a-wa-tamnarûya awâtam — "let my stele the matter"

𒇷 𒆗 𒅆 𒋗li-kal-lim-šulikallimšu — "show him:"

𒁲 𒅔 𒋗 𒇷 𒈬 𒌫di-in-šu li-mu-urdīnšu līmur — "let him SEE his case,"

𒇷 𒅁 𒁀 𒋗li-ib-ba-šulibbašu — "his heart —"

𒇷 𒈾 𒀊 𒁉 𒅖 𒈠li-na-ap-pi-iš-malinappišma — "let it breathe."

Codex Hammurapi (composite text), epilogue. urn:nabu:cdli:p464358:a:3240'–:a:3256' · license: attribution.

Item by item, one last time:

awīlum ḫablum ša awātam iraššû — “the wronged man who has a case”: the wronging-verb of the creed come back as a man; the verb of having wears chapter 17’s quiet ša-clause -u.
ana maḫar ṣalmīya — “before my image”: maḫar is a construct doing a preposition’s work — from the same root as chapter 16’s meḫrum, “equal”: what stands FACING you.
lillikma … lišmēma … līmur … linappišma — the whole passage runs on the precative, the may-it-be form the letters taught you: let him come, let him hear, let him see, let it breathe. A king wishing, not ordering — because the reader he imagines is not his subject. It is whoever can read.
lištassima — “let him have (it) read aloud”: the reading-verb with a -t- of its own — one of the lexical -t- builds the grammars keep beyond this course; met, named, left at the frontier. Reading was done aloud, and mostly by hired eyes: the king assumes a scribe at the wronged man’s side.
dīnšu līmur — “let him see his case”: the seeing-verb, closed by your last syllable-sign. But you no longer need the hired eyes. That is the whole point of the school.
libbašu linappišma — “let his heart breathe”: Akkadian’s word for relief is a lung filling. The stele’s promise to the man who can read it.

Drill before you go

Write 𒅈, 𒌫, 𒀩 from memory; say ar, ur — and for the statue, say ṣalmum.
Recite the invitation’s last four lines from the signs alone, aloud. You are the reader the king imagined.
Fill the empty cells of the Reference’s tense-and-stem grid with the model root p-r-s — then check yourself against a grammar someday. The course’s cells are all you need to read what you have read.
libbašu linappišma — parse every piece, then say it to yourself in your own language.

This closes Cuneiform 103 — every sign and every form now stands on the Reference shelf. May your heart breathe.