PHILOLOGICAL COMMENTARY

• The above omen’s protasis and that of 32.A.51’s have the same meaning, but whereas 32.N.47’ above uses a syllabic spelling of ka-la, 32.A.51’ uses the logogram DÙ. Nevertheless, the apodoses differ: 32.A.51’s apodosis is ŠUB-tu₄ GÁL-ši, ‘there will be misfortune’. Note, however, that both apodoses include the logogram ŠUB.

• Šumma ālu features multiple omens about animal noises and cries, even for animals such as scorpions or lizards who are either usually silent or relatively quiet. [1] As the noises are usually referred to quite generally, with words such as šasû ‘to cry’ or rigmu ‘voice, noise’, the spatial contexts in which the noises are observed seems to play a role in whether the sound is negative or positive (though sounds are predominately negative). While noises outside, in the street, may occasionally be positive, noises in the home, as above, are negative (Rendu Loisel 2016b, 305–6).
• For the combination of nadû and bītu ‘house’ meaning ‘abandonment of a house’ (See CAD N/1, 76–77 s.v. nadû 1c).