PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

• The apodosis of the above omen is difficult to interpret because it is unclear in the Akkadian who is being referred to in each clause. Further, šīmtu ‘fate’ is a polyvalent concept in Akkadian (Lawson 1992, 1). It is a person’s “predestined yet malleable fate” (Sibbing-Plantholt 2021, 337). Nevertheless it can be synonymous with (a natural) death (Lawson 1992, 75–76; Katz 2014–2016, 72 §3.4 Time of death; Sibbing-Plantholt 2021, 338 n. 13). A likely interpretation is that the remote enemy of the protasis's man will learn of his fate, i.e., death, but that man, that is the man with the lizard around his neck, will never learn of his enemy’s death.

Finally the apodosis’s vocabulary is also polyvalent.

1. 1. The above omen is translated in KAL 1 (16-17, 73 Rs. 12’) as follows:

Wenn eine Eidechse den Nacken eines Mannes umwindet: Ein entfernter Feind wird von dem Schicksal erfahren, ihm aber wird, solange er lebt, die Sache fremd bleiben, die Nachrede wird er nicht hören.

The logogram EME lišānu first and foremost means ‘tongue’. It has, however, a multitude of other meanings. Among the most common meanings are ‘report’ and ‘statement’ as well as ‘gossip’ and ‘slander’, as KAL 1 has translated it. See CAD L, 209–15 s.v. lišānu.

1. 2. As noted in KAL 1 (75, n. Rs. 12’), CAD L, 213 s.v. lišānu 4 ‘language’ translates the end of the above omen’s apodosis as “talk will be hostile(?), speech will not be understood”. The sign KÚR read as nakāru can also mean ‘to be(come) hostile’ or ‘to be(come) estranged’. See CAD N/1, 162 s.v. nakāru 1c for other examples in omens.
   3. A further translation with Cassandra-like implications is found under the entry nakāru ‘to countermand, overrule a command, refuse’ (CAD N/1, 165 s.v. nakāru 4): “as for him, as long as he lives KA KÚR-ir lišānu la išemme he will be contradicted(?) and no one will listen (to him)”.

We translate as above as it narratively makes the most sense.