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10
BABYLONIAN PENITENTIAL PSALMS

Flame that roarest against the foe, and cuttest off the mighty!
O furious Ishtar, summoner of armies!
O goddess of men, O goddess of women, whose counsel none may learn!
Where thou dost regard, the dead lives, the sick arises.
The unjust becomes just when he beholdeth thy face!
I, thy servant, sorrowful, sighing, suffering, invoke thee.
Look upon me, O my lady, accept my supplication.
In truth pity me, and hearken unto my prayer.
Speak deliverance unto me, let thy soul be appeased!
Deliverance for my suffering body, full of troubles and disorders!
Deliverance for my afflicted heart, full of sorrow and sighing!
Deliverance for my suffering bowels, troubled and confused!
Deliverance for my troubled house, full of lamentation!
Deliverance for my spirit, full of sorrow and sighing!
O . . . Irnini, fierce lioness, may thy heart be appeased!
Raging wild ox, may thy heart be appeased!
May thine eyes rest with favour upon me!
In thy glorious appearance, in truth look upon me!
Put an end to the evil bewitchments of my body; let me behold thy clear light!
How long, O my lady, shall mine enemies persecute me?
How long shall they devise evil in rebellion and wickedness,
My persecutor, my pursuer, shall spy after me?
How long, O my lady, shall the crippled and diseased seek me?
He hath prepared me a mourner’s garment, but I appear joyfully before thee.
The weak have become strong, but I am weak.
I am troubled like a flood which the evil wind maketh to rage (?).