Within the extremely large corpus of Assyrian royal annals is a smaller group of texts in which the information given is directed to a god in the form of a letter. The texts given in this section are conceived as answers by the god Aššur to such letters. In order to emphasize the closeness of communication between god and king, the god is represented as repeating verbatim the words of the king.
The first three examples (nos. 41, 42, and 43) concern campaigns of Šamši-Adad V (823-811) against Babylonia. No. 44 relates to Assurbanipal's wars against Šamaš-šumu-ukin. No. 45 can probably be identified by the reference in rev. 4 to killing dispatch riders.
It should be noted that the prophecy texts sometimes referred to as oracles ( those frequently commencing la tapallah ..., "Do not fear ...") constitute a different genre from that involved here.[[18]]
18 Discussed by M . Weippert, "Assyrische Prophetien der Zeit Asarhaddons und Assurbanipals," ARINH (1981), p. 71ff.
Alasdair Livingstone
Alasdair Livingstone, 'Oracles from the God Aššur: Aššur Replies to the King's Letters', Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea, SAA 3. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1989; online contents: SAAo/SAA03 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa03/natureandcontent/oraclesfromashur/]