Divine Service and Its Rewards: Ideology and Poetics in the Hinke Kudurru.

• Author: Vanderhooft, David
• Position: Review

By VICTOR AVIGDOR HUROWITZ. Beer-Sheva, Studies by the Department of Bible and Ancient Near East, vol. 10, Beer-Sheva, Israel: BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1997. Pp. 106, illustrations. $33.50.

In this volume Hurowitz offers a detailed literary analysis of the Hinke kudurru - a Babylonian monument from Nippur that details a land grant to the priest Nusku-ibni in the sixteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar I (1125-1104 B.C.E.). Hurowitz argues that the text has an intricate poetic structure which is crafted to reinforce a specific view of royal administrative procedure and its divine legitimization. He claims that the message of the text is inextricably bound up with its form, and in this the study builds on his literary analyses of other Mesopotamian texts (p. 9, n. 21). Hurowitz' goal is to contribute to the study of Mesopotamian poetry, generally, and to clarify the message and function of kudurrus, specifically.(1)

Chapter two contains a transcription and translation of the "narrative core" of the text, arranged according to Hurowitz' analysis of its versification. Literary analysis follows in chapters three through nine. Hurowitz' edition deserves some comment.

Mechanically, one notes that the photographs of the kudurru are out of order (switch "side B" with "side D"). Also, absence of a line-by-line transliteration of the text keyed to Hinke's hand copy (found on pp. 25-31) complicates the reader's task: Hurowitz often refers to the text by column and line number, but the reader can determine these only by collating Hinke's copy. Hurowitz' edition contains some other problems, including the following. Col. i 13 (p. 32): Hurowitz reads ilu sa melamsu surbu, and translates "The god whose radiances are piled up (?)." He discusses surbu later (p. 60. n. 72, where the entire line is translated differently, a discrepancy that happens frequently), but unnecessarily questions its derivation, which is plain: read "the god whose radiance [sing.] is supreme." Col. i 18, for parsusu sitrahu pilludesu siru read mesusu sitruhu parsusu siru, "his rites are splendid, his cultic ordinances sublime" (see CAD S/3 134, s.v. sitruhu b). The correction invalidates Hurowitz' arguments about alliteration in this line (p. 61). Col. i 19: for sakkusu read sakkusu; i 24: for muste u asratisu read muste u asratisu (transcription is often inconsistent); ii 24: mukin isdi mati is literally "the one who establishes the foundations of the land."

Hurowitz omits a...