Verse Account of Nabonidus

Nabonidus on a relief from Harran

The question what Nabonidus was doing in Tayma will probably remain unsolved for ever. From the following text, known as the Verse Account of Nabonidus, we may deduce that during his life time, there were strong rumors that the king suffered from a mental illness and proposed a religious reform (preferring the Moon god Sin to all other gods). These rumors were used by the author of the Verse Account of Nabonidus to explain Nabonidus' stay abroad: being mad, he ignored the supreme god Marduk and went away.

Nabonidus' devotion to the Moon is a historical fact, proven by an inscription found in Harran (in 1956). That he blasphemed against Marduk, however, must be an exaggeration.

The translation below was made by A. Leo Oppenheim and is copied from James B. Pritchard's Ancient Near Eastern texts relating to the Old Testament, 1950 Princeton. Some minor changes have been made.

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The Verse Account of NabonidusColumn i

[i.1] [As to Nabonidus:] law and order are not promulgated by him, he made perish the common people through want, the nobles he killed in war, for the trader he blocked the road. 

[i.2] For the farmer he made rare the [unintelligible], there is no [lacuna], the harvester does not sing the alalu-song any more, he does not fence in any more the arable territory. [lacuna]

[i.3] He took away their property, scattered their possessions, the [lacuna]  he ruined completely, their corpses remaining on a dark place, decaying. 

[i.4] Their faces became hostile, they do not parade along the wide street, you do not see happiness anymore, [lacuna] is unpleasant, they decided.

[i.5] As to Nabonidus, his protective deity became hostile to him. And he, the former favorite of the gods is now seized by misfortunes. Against the will of the gods he performed an unholy action, he thought out something worthless:

[i.6] he had made the image of a deity which nobody had ever seen in this country, he introduced it into the temple, he placed it on a pedestal; he called it by the name of Moon. It is adorned with a necklace of lapis lazuli, crowned with a tiara,

[i.7] its appearance is that of the eclipsed moon, the gesture of its hand is like that of the god Lugal-[unintelligible], its head of hair reaches to the pedestal, and in front of it are placed the Storm Dragon and the Wild Bull.

[i.8] When he worshipped it, its appearance became like that of a demon crowned with a tiara, his face turned hostile [lacuna].