The Babylonian Theodicy
Translation by Benjamin R. Foster, *Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature*, 3rd ed. (Bethesda: CDL Press, 2005), §IV.19 The Babylonian Theodicy, drawing on the edition in W. G. Lambert, *Babylonian Wisdom Literature* (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), pp. 63-89. Selection of stanzas (XXIII-XXVII) from Foster's translation of the 27-stanza acrostic dialogue; the earlier stanzas were not preserved in the OCR of the source. See Foster, *Before the Muses* (3rd ed., 2005), or Lambert, *BWL*, pp. 63-89, for the complete text. Used under fair-use principles for non-commercial educational and religious commentary; copyright remains with the publishers. · Used under fair-use principles for non-commercial educational and religious commentary. Copyright remains with the publisher.
XXIII. Sufferer
1I have looked around in society, indications are the contrary:
2God does not block the progress of a demon.
3A father hauls a boat up a channel,
4While his firstborn sprawls in bed.
5The eldest son makes his way like a lion,
6The second son is content to drive a donkey.
7The heir struts the street like a peddler,
8The younger son makes provision for the destitute.”
9What has it profited me that I knelt before my god?
10It is I who must (now) bow before my inferior!
11The riffraff despise me as much as the rich and proud.
XXIV. Friend
12Adept scholar, master of erudition,
13You blaspheme in the anguish of your thoughts.
14Divine purpose is as remote as innermost heaven,
15It is too difficult to understand, people cannot understand it.
16Among all creatures the birth-goddess formed,
17Why should offspring be completely unmatched(?)?
18The cow’s first calf is inferior,
19Her subsequent offspring is twice as big.
20The first child is born a weakling,
21The second is called a capable warrior.
22Even if one (tries to) apprehend divine intention, people cannot understand it.
XXV. Sufferer
23attention, my friend, learn my (next) parry,
24Consider the well-chosen diction of my speech.
25They extol the words of an important man who is accomplished in murder,
26They denigrate the powerless who has committed no crime.
27They esteem truthful the wicked to whom tr[uth] is abhorrent,
28They reject the truthful man who he[eds] the will of god.
29They fill the oppressor's st[rongroom] with refined gold,
30They empty the beggar's larder of [his] provisions.
31They shore up the tyrant whose all is crime,
32They ruin the weak, they oppress the powerless.
33And as for me, without means, a parvenu harasses me.
XXVI. Friend
34Enlil,’ king of the gods, who created teeming humankind,
35Majestic Ea," who pinched off their clay,
36The queen who fashioned them, mistress Mami,
37Gave twisted words to the human race,
38They endowed them in perpetuity with lies and falsehood.
39Solemnly they speak well of a rich man,
40“He’s the king,” they say, “he has much wealth."
41They malign a poor man as a thief,
42They lavish mischief upon him, they conspire to kill him.
43They make him suffer every evil because he has no wherewithal(?).
44They bring him to a horrible end, they snuff him out like an ember.’
XXVII. Sufferer
45You are sympathetic, my friend, be considerate of (my) misfortune.
46Help me, see (my) distress, you should be cognizant of it.
47Though I am humble, learned, supplicant,
48I have not seen help or succor for an instant.
49I would pass unobtrusively through the streets of my city, voice was not raised, I kept my speaking low.
50I did not hold my head high, I would look at the ground.
51I was not given to servile praise among my associates.
52May the god who has cast me off grant help, (295)
53May the goddess who has [forsaken me] take pity,
54The shepherd Shamash will past[ure] people as a god should.