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Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi: The Standard Babylonian Poem of the Righteous Sufferer
State Archives of Assyria Cuneiform Texts, Volume VII
by Amar Annus and Alan Lenzi

Helsinki 2010 • 175 x 250 mm • Pp. lvi + 72
Paper • $35.00 • ISBN-13 978-952-10-1334-8 • ISBN-10 952-10-1334-6
Introduction, Cuneiform Text, and Transliteration with a Translation and Glossary
SAACT 7 presents a new edition of Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi, “The Babylonian Poem of the Righteous Sufferer.” This edition, based on all known tablets of the poem, offers the most complete text of Ludlul to date. Building on a half century of research and discovery, the editors incorporate previously unknown lines of the poem and establish the proper ordering of the material in Tablet IV. The edition includes an extensive introduction, the reconstructed text in cuneiform and transliteration, a translation, and a glossary and sign list. Assyriologists and biblical scholars alike will welcome this long overdue edition of “The Babylonian Job.”
Reviews:
Christopher A. Rollston, review of Amar Annus and Alan Lenzi, Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi: The Standard Babylonian Poem of the Righteous Sufferer, Review of Biblical Literature [http://www.bookreviews.org] (2011) (open access).
Ultimately, this volume is a sine qua non for various fields and subfields of ancient Near Eastern studies. That is, Assyriologists will find this volume to be a very useful contribution, but the audience for this volume certainly includes those who work in fields such as Northwest Semitic, Hebrew Bible, Egyptology, Hittite, literary criticism, and the history of religions. No library should be without it.
— Christopher A. Rollston
Michael S. Moore, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 73 (2011): 339-40. (subscription required).
This volume promises to be the most significant critical edition of the Akkadian “Poem of the Righteous Sufferer” (Ludlul bēl nēmeqi) to appear in Englsh translation since the publication of W. G. Lambert's Babylonian Wisdom Literature [1960] ….
— Michael S. Moore
Jiří Prosecký, Archiv Orientání 79 (2011): 138-40.
Le texte littéraire babylonien qu’on nomme, d’après son incipit, Ludlul bēl nēmeqi (« Je veux louer le seigneur de la sagesse ») compte certainement parmi les textes sapientiaux les plus importants provenant de la Mésopotamie ancienne.
— Jiří Prosecký
M. E. J. Richardson, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 35 (2011): 161. (subscription required).
The efforts invested by both editors in producing this fine handbook deserve the highest praise …
— M. E. J. Richardson
Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, “Is Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi Wisdom Literature?,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 11 (2011) (open access).
Annus and Lenzi are to be thanked for a significant contribution to the reconstruction, study, and understanding of a major Akkadian literary work and a welcome addition to the growing SAACT series. It will prove valuable to both scholars and students.
— Victor Avigdor Hurowitz

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