PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

• Collation of K 12180+ shows that If a City 2 (164-201, Ex(4)₂) omits the traces visible on the manuscript's first line. This results in a discrepency in the line count between the current edition and If a City 2. 
• Collation of K 03730+ 11 shows that there is a broken -˹du˺ after the break and before -ti. This fits with the expected ma-’a-du-ti from Sm 0710+ 7’ The sign at the beginning of the break is reconstructed as I[GI from Sm 0710+ 7’, where the phonetic complement -ir is still visible. This reconstruction allows for -ú to be associated with TUK ‘to have’, instead of being read as part of an unknown word ú-x, as If a City 2 (191, *32.11’) does. It also clears up the difficulties in If a City 2¸ where [IGI] is present in the final reconstruction of the omen (166, *32.11’), but the ú­-x of K 03730+ is dropped without comment:

• The break at the right-hand edge of Sm 0710+ 7’ is not large, but the thickness of the manuscript would have allowed the scribe to write the missing portions of the apodosis on the edge of the manuscript. Alternatively, the left-hand portion of the next line (Sm 0710+ 8’) has a large break, perhaps the omen was carried over onto the next line or onto the manuscript’s reverse. The reverse is unfortunately completely broken away.
• The above omen has a forerunner on an Old Babylonian collection of omens taken from daily life (CUSAS 18, no. 16, col. viii 23’-37’, reading and translation from George 2013, 99):

DIŠ i+na bīti(é)-šu ṣurārum(eme.šid) ša ˹zibbatam(kun) lā(nu) šaknu(gar)˺ innamir(igi!) a[ššat(d[am])-su mārē(dumu)]meš ma-du-ti u[l-la-ad]-ma [akalum(ninda) a-na pi]-šu ul(nu) šakin(gar)
(If) in his house a lizard that has no tail is sighted: [his wife] will [give birth to so] many [sons] that there will not be [(enough) bread for] his [mouth].