From the upper sea of the setting sun
To the lower sea of the rising sun,
All the blackheaded people he has cast beneath my feet,
The rebellious princes shun battle with me.
They forsook their dwellings; like a falcon
Which dwells in the clefts, they fled alone to an inaccessible
place.
* * * * *
To the city of Ekron
I went,
The governors and princes
who had done evil I slew,
I bound their corpses
to poles around the city.
The inhabitants of the
city who had done evil I reckoned as spoil;
To the rest who had
done no wrong I spoke peace.
Padi, their king, I
brought from Jerusalem,
King over them I made
him.
The tribute of my lordship
I laid upon him.
Hezekiah of Judah, who
had not submitted to me,
Forty-six of his strong
cities, small cities without number,
I
besieged.
Casting down the walls,
advancing engines, by assault I took them.
Two hundred thousand,
one hundred and fifty men and women, young
and
old,
Horses, mules, asses,
camels, oxen, sheep,
I brought out and reckoned
as spoil.
Hezekiah himself I shut
up like a caged bird
In Jerusalem, his royal
city,
The walls I fortified
against him,
Whoever came out of
the gates I turned him back.
His cities which I had
plundered I divided from his land
And gave them to Mitinti,
king of Ashdod,
To Padi, king of Ekron,
and to Silbal, king of Gaza.
To the former tribute
paid yearly
I added the tribute
of alliance of my lordship and
Laid that upon him.
Hezekiah himself
Was overwhelmed by the
fear of the brightness of my lordship.
The Arabians and his
other faithful warriors
Whom, for the defence
of Jerusalem, his royal city,
He had brought in, fell
into fear,
With thirty talents
of gold and eight hundred talents of silver,
precious
stones,
Couches of ivory, thrones
of ivory,
And his daughters, his
women of the palace,
The young men and the
young women, to Nineveh, the city of my
lordship,
I caused to be brought
after me, and he sent his ambassadors
To give tribute and
to pay homage.
XI. INVOCATION TO THE GODDESS BELTIS
To Beltis, the great Lady, chief of heaven and earth,
Queen of all the gods, mighty in all the lands.
Honored is her festival among the Ishtars.
She surpasses her offspring in power.
She, the shining one, like her brother, the sun,
Enlightens Heaven and earth,
Mistress of the spirits of the underworld,
First-born of Anu, great among the gods,
Ruler over her enemies,
The seas she stirs up,
The wooded mountains tramples under foot.
Mistress of the spirits of upper air,