The Neo-Assyrian term for "prophet" was raggimu (fem. raggintu,"prophetess"), which literally means "shouter/proclaimer."[[212]] Such a term immediately reminds one of John the Baptist, "the shouting one," and of his 9th- century BC predecessor, Elijah, who epitomize the idealized picture of biblical prophets as ascetics living in the "wilderness." Indeed, there is evidence that asceticism and seclusion from the world played a significant role in the life of Assyrian prophets. In oracle 9 the prophetess presents her concern for the life of the king as the exertions of Gilgamesh; the allusion is to the 9th and I0th tablets of the Gilgamesh Epic, where the hero roams the desert as an ascetic clad in animal skins, again recalling the biblical figures of Elijah and John the Baptist.[[213]]
The role of the prophets as speakers to the masses is well attested both in the prophecy corpus itself and in contemporary texts. In oracle 2.4 the prophetess declares: "I will speak to the multitudes," and continues: "Listen, sunrise and sunset!," recalling Isaiah 1:2 and other biblical passages. Oracle 3.2 begins, "Listen, Assyrians!," recalling Amos 3 and other biblical oracles addressed to the Israelites collectively. In SAA 10 352 (ABL 437 = LAS 280), a prophetess speaks in "the assembly of the country," while ABL 149 = LAS 3 17 and CT 53 969 refer to appearances of prophetesses in temples and during religious ceremonies.[[214]] Oracle 3.5 indicates that the activity of the prophets played a decisive role in winning the population of Assyria over to Esarhaddon' s side before his clash with the rebel brothers.[[215]] The same idea is implicit in lines 108ff of Esarhaddon's succession treaty (SAA 2 no. 6), which show that prophets were considered capable of turning the masses of people against Aššurbanipal, Esarhaddon' s crown prince designate.[[216]]Finally, the very fact that prophesying was expressed in Neo-Assyrian through the verb ragāmu,"to shout, to proclaim,"[[217]] implies that prophetic oracles were generally delivered in a loud voice - "shouted" - and hence usually addressed to masses of people rather than to single individuals.
While the deliverers of prophetic oracles are consistently called raggimu (raggintu) in the prophecy corpus and other Neo-Assyrian texts (letters, treaties, and administrative documents ),[[218]] in Esarhaddon' s inscriptions the oracles of Collections 1-3 are referred to asšipir mahhê, "messages of ecstatic prophets" (see below, p. LXXIII). The term mahhû, "ecstatic prophet,"[[219]] is well known as a designation of the Mari prophets[[220]]and also occurs in Ur III, Old Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian texts,[[221]]as well as in Standard Babylonian literary and lexical texts;[[222]]it is also attested in Middle Assyrian.[[223]]By contrast, it is conspicuously absent from purely Neo-Assyrian texts, where it is attested only twice: once in the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon as a synonym of raggimu,[[224]] and once in a religious commentary, the so-called Marduk Ordeal text. [[225]] Conversely, the word raggimu does not occur outside Neo-Assyrian texts.[[226]] It is thus clear that raggimu was a specifically Neo-Assyrian designation of prophets replacing older mahhu, which was retained as a synonym restricted to literary use. [[227]] Accordingly, the logogram MI.GUB .BA, which is given the reading mahhūtu in lexical texts, [[228]] is probably to be read raggintu in no. 10, where it seems to refer to the prophetess Dunnasa-amur, the speaker in oracle 9.
Whether the replacement of mahhû "ecstatic" by raggimu "shouter" reflects a change in the social role of the prophets between the Middle and Neo-Assyrian periods remains unclear. [[229]] In any case, it is certain that Neo- Assyrian prophecy continued to be ecstatic in character. As already pointed out above (p. XXXIVf), the "possession" of the prophet by the Goddess involved a change in consciousness, purposely triggered by ascetic techniques such as weeping and wailing. [[230]] In addition to oral prophecy, these techniques also produced visions and dreams. It is certainly no coincidence that raggimu "prophet" is equated with šabrû "seer, visionary" in a Neo-Assyrian lexical text,[[231]]and that mahhû "ecstatic" is associated with words like "wailer" (lallaru), "frenzied" (zabbu), "carrier of spindle" (nāš pilaqqi), and other ecstatic devotees of Ištar in Babylonian lexical and omen texts.[[232]] The close connection between visions and prophetic oracles is clearly evidenced by no. 11, which contains an oracular utterance followed by a vision (diglu), as well as by several other contemporary texts. [[233]] At times the borderline between oracular prophecy and visions seems to vanish altogether, as in the following episode in an inscription of Assurbanipal:
Ištar heard my desperate sighs. She said to me, "Fear not," and encouraged me (with the words): "I feel compassion for the prayer you prayed and [the tears] that filled your eyes."
The very same night as I was praying to her, a seer (šabrû) lay down and had a dream. Having awakened, he related to me the nocturnal vision (tabrīt mūši) which Ištar had made him see (ušabrû):
"The Goddess who dwells in Arbela entered (var. entered me). Quivers hang from her right and left, she held a bow in her hand, and she had drawn a pointed sword to make battle. You stood before her, while she spoke to you like a mother to a child. Ištar, the highest of the gods, called to you and gave you the following order: 'You plan to make war - I am on my way to where you intend to go.'
You said to her, 'Wherever you go, I will go with you,' but the Lady of Ladies answered you: 'You shall stay here, where your residence is ! Eat, drink wine, make merry, and praise my godhead until I go and accomplish that task and make you attain your heart's desire. You shall not make a long face, your feet shall not tremble, and you shall not wipe away sweat in the thick of the battle.'
She sheltered you in her sweet embrace, protecting your entire body. Fire flared up in her face, and she left angrily and impetuously to defeat her enemy, proceeding against Teumman, king of Elam, who had made her very angry."
In both its imagery and its content the theophany reported here closely resembles the prophetic oracles of the present corpus. However, it differs from them in being a visual and acoustic experience, not direct speech of god, and is accordingly attributed but to a raggimu but to a šabrû, "seer." The distinction made in the text between raggimu and šabrû is fundamentally important. While any individual (and especially any devotee of Ištar) could have a vision or a dream and report it, [[235]] only a few special individuals could qualify as prophets, to speak with the mouth of God. This basic distinction between a "seer" and a "prophet" of course does not preclude the possibility that a prophet could have visions - on the contrary .[[236]]
214 ABL 1 49 = LAS 31 7:7-r.8: "The prophetess Mullissu-abu-uṣri who took the king's clothes to Akkad, has prophesied [in the te]mple: "[The] throne from the te[mp]le [... (Break) ... "Le]t the throne go, I shall catch my king's enemies with it." CT 53 969 reads (obv. 10ff): "The king's sacrifices have been performed ... [NN?], the woman ... who) ... during the sacrif[ices], has prophesied (tarrugum): 'Why has the orchard and grove of ... been given to the Egyptians? Speak in the king's presence; let them give it back to me, and I will gi[ve] total abundance [to] his [...].' Cf. Amos prophesying in the temple of Bethel (Amos 7: 10ff), Jeremiah in the temple of Jerusalem (Jer. 7:2). See also n. 220 on assinnus falling into trance and prophesying in the temple of the goddess Anunitum in Mari.
215 See notes on oracle 3.5 iii 20f and iv l 3ff.
216 "lf you hear any evil, improper, ugly word which is not seemly or good to Assurbanipal, the great crown prince designate ... from the mouth of a prophet (raggimu), an ecstatic (mahhû), an inquirer of oracles (ša 'ilu amat ili), or from the mouth of any human being at all, you shall not conceal it but report it to Assurbanipal. .. " (lines 108-122).
217 The meanings of ragāmu attested in Neo-Assyrian include: I. "to cry out, shout, shriek" (ZA 45 42:40); 2. "to cry out, shout, raise a cry" (KAV 1 97:58, ABL 1372:24); 3. "to call, shout to" (AfO 17 287:105); and 4. (in the ventive) "to call up (for questioning)" (ABL 1 073: 14, KAV 115:23).
218 See oracles 3 iv 31, 6 r.11 and 7: 1; SAA 10 352 = ABL 437, LAS 317 = ABL 1 49, SAA 10 1 09 = ABL 121 6, SAA 10 294 = ABL 1285, SAA 2 6 11851 I 0, and SAA 7 9; cf. Nissinen, AOAT 232 (1993) 227 and idem, "References to Prophetic Activity in Neo-Assyrian Sources" (forthcoming).
219 The word mahhû (Ass., Mari; Bab. muhhû) is the D-stem verbal adjective of mahû "to become frenzied, to go into a trance" (CAD M/ 1 1 15f); hence, literally, "one brought into a trance." Note the Sumerian lexical equivalents of mahû, è "to go out (of one's mind)" and e11 "to ascend/descend" (cf. nn. 114, 116f and 1 33 above) in Diri I 158 and 208, as well as the commentary item [È : šegu : ] È : mahû '"to ascend/descend' (= è) means 'to rage, to be frenzied"' in CT 41 28 r.6 (Alu comm.).
220 LÚ.mu-uh-hu-um ša d[d]a-gan, ARM 3 40 = ARM 26 221 :9 and ARM 2 90 = ARM 26 220: 1 6; also ARM 3 78 = ARM 26 221bis:12 (PN Lu.mu-uh-hu-ú-um), ARM 6 45 = ARM 26 201:9 (MÍ.mu-uh-hu-tim), and 10 50:22 (MÍ.mu-uh-hu-tum); šumma ina rēš war[hi]m mu-uh-hu-um ištaqa[l] a[n]a ma-he-e-e[m] ul i[red,iu], RA 35 2 ii 22f (Ištar ritual, see ARM 26 p. 386). Note also ARM 10 7 = ARM 26 213, where an assinnu named Šelebum (cf. ARM 10 80 = ARM 26 197 and the end of the letter) falls into trance (im-ma-hu) in the temple of Anunitum and delivers an oracle of the goddess (in the I st person) to the king (addressed by name and in the 2nd person, as in the present corpus). For another oracle to the king by an assinnu of Anunitum (Ili-haznaya) see ARM 10 6 = ARM 26 212; see also ARM 26 200, where an ecstatic prophetess (mu-uh-hu-tum) prophesies in the temple of Anunitum, and ARM 108 = ARM 26 214, where a woman falls into trance in the temple of Anunitum and delivers an oracle.
221 E.g., ana LÚ.mah-im ša DN "to the prophet of DN," TCS I 369:5 (Ur III); MÍ.LÚ.GUB.BA ša DN "prophetess of ON," TCL 10 39: 11; PN mu-hu-um "prophet," MOP 18 171: 14; LÚ.GUB.BA DINGIR.RA "prophet of the god," MOP 10 no. 7:6.9 (all OB); LÚ.GUB.BA, OECT 1 pl.2 l :38; PN A mLÚ.GUB.BA, YOS 6 18: 1.7.8.10, YOS 7 1 35:6 (all NB).
221 E.g., "If there appear many ecstatic prophets/prophetesses (LÚ.GUB.BA.MEŠ/ MÍ.GUB.BA.MEŠ) in a city," CT 38 4 81f, followed (in similar context) by "many cripples" (akû), "frenzied people" (zabbu), and "male and female seers" (šabrû and šabrātum); also "If a man (while walking in the street) sees an ecstatic" (NÍ.ZU.UB, followed by LÚ.GUE.BA IGI "sees an ecstatic prophet"), Sm 332 r.5 (both Alu); "If he sees a prophet (ma-ah-ha-a)," TDP 4:30 (Sagig); LÚ.GUE.BA SUB-ut "a prophet will fall down," Boissier DA 211 r.1 2. For the lexical texts, see below, n. 232.
223 See VS 19 1 i 37f (below, n. 244).
224 See n. 2 16 above.
225 "The ecstatic (mahhû) who goes before the Lady of Babylon is a bringer of news (mupassiru); he goes toward her, weeping: 'They are taking him to the river ordeal.' She sends him away, saying: 'My brother, my brother!,"' SAA 3 34:28 // 35:31.
226 Except in an Assyrian lexical text (n. 231) and in the Neo-Babylonian letter SAA 10 I 09 = ABL 1216, written in Nineveh by an Assyrianized court scholar. The alleged attestation of the word in a MA tablet from Tell Rimah (Saggs, Iraq 30 [1968) 1 62f on TR 2031:6, cf. H. Huffmon, "The Origins of Prophecy," in F. M. Cross et al. (eds.), Magnalia Dei, Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Memory of G. Ernest Wright [Garden City, NY, 1976), p. 1 75) must be deleted, since instead of ra-kin-tu "oracle priestess" the text actually reads ra-qi i+na'.
227 Cf. the use of the word rakkābu "express messenger" for normal kallāp šipirte in Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions, etc. Note the occurrence of mahhû and mahhūtu among the cult personnel of the Ištar temple in the Tammuz ritual Farber Ištar p. 140:31.
228 lú.gub.ba = mu-uh-hu-um, mí.lú.gub.ba = mu(-uh)-hu-tum, MSL 12 1 58:23 (OB Lu); lú.gub.ba = mah-hu-u "ecstatic," ibid. 10lf:213 (Lu I); lú.ní.su.ub = mah-hu-u, lú.gub.ba = MIN, ibid. 132: l 1 7f (Lu IV).
229 In NA royal inscriptions, the verb mahû "to be(come) ecstatic" occurs in the pejorative meaning "to be(come) crazy," see Borger Esarh. p. 42 i 41: "my brothers became crazy (im-ma-hu-ma)," and ibid. 44 i 73: "seeing my onslaught, they became crazy" (émû mahhûtis)": similarly Streck Asb p. 8 i 84 and 158: 19. However, these passages are obvious literary allusions to En. el. IV 8, "Tiamat went crazy/out of her mind" (mahhūtiš íteme), and can hardly be taken to indicate that the word mahhu itself had acquired a pejorative connotation which would have led to its replacement by raggimu in NA times. Cf. the "crazy" behaviour of Israelite prophetes: Isaiah goes about naked and barefoot for three years "as a sign and warning" (Isa. 20:2f); Jeremiah wears cords and bars of a yoke on his neck (Jer. 27:2); Saul lies naked all day in prophetic rapture (I Sam. 19:20-24); Zedekiah makes himself horns of iron (1 Kgs. 22: I Of). Note also Jer. 29:26f: "It is your duty, as officer in charge of the LORD's house, to put every madman who sets up as a prophet into the stocks and the pillory. Why, then, have you not reprimanded Jeremiah of Anathoth, who poses as a prophet before you?" The respected position of prophets in Neo-Assyrian times is made clear by SAA 3 3:6- 12: "A word from their lips is blazing fire! Their utterances are valid for ever! ... In their pure mouths is voiced the endurance of my throne."
230 See LAS II p. 58f and cf. n. 141 above. On fasting as a method for obtaining visions see in Jewish mysticism see Idel Kabbalah, p. 80ff and Gruenwald Apocalyptic, p. 99f (with reference to Dan. 10, etc.).
231 lú.šabra (PA.AL) = ŠU-u (= šabrû) = rag-gi-[mu], MSL 12 226 (Hg B to Hh XV; 4 mss., all from Nineveh). The preceding entries include [lú].zilulu (PA.GIŠGAL) = sah-[hi-ru] "prowling" (line 132; see n. 67 above) and [lú].UR.SaL= [a]s-sin-nu = sin-niš-a-[nu] "womanish, effeminate" (line 133; see n. 138 above). Cf. also the omens referred to in n. 222, where prophets are associated with "frenzied people" (zabbu) and "male and female seers" (šabrū and šabrātum).
232 See MSL 12 102 (LÚ = amēlu, Tablet I), where the entry lú.gub.ba = mah-hu-u "ecstatic prophet" (line 213) occurs between kalû "lamentation singer," munambû "lamentor," lallaru "wailer" (lines 209-212) and zabbu "frenzied," kurgarrû "self-castrate," assinnu "man-woman" and nāš pilaqqi "spindle carrier" (see n. 138 above). In Tablet IV of the same series, mahhû "ecstatic" and zabbu "frenzied" constitute a single semantic section (MSL 12 132: 116-23) separated by rulings from other sections; both words are given the same Sumerian equivalents (lú.ní.su.ub, lú.gub.ba, lú.al.è.dè) and grouped together with the word lú.zag.gír.lá denoting a devotee of Ištar equipped with a sword and participating in self-castration scenes. In the OB version of the same series (MSL 12 158:23ff), both words are in addition associated with the word naqmu/ naqimtu describing a bodily defect. Note also the Ištar ritual referring to the distribution of loaves to a "frenzied man" and "frenzied (woman" (zabbu zabbatu) beside a "prophet and prophetess" (mahhû u mahhūltu), Farber Ištar, p. 140:31. For the omen texts, see above, n. 222. See also A. Malamat, Mari and the Early Israelite Experience (1989), p. 85 n. 58.
233 See CT 53 17 (+) 107:8-10 // CT 53 938:8-10; SAA 10 294 = ABL 1285:31-33; Borger Esarh. p. 2:12ff and p. 45 ii 6f; Thompson Esarh. pl. 14 ii 9ff; Streck Asb p. 120 v 93ff.
234 For a previous analysis of this passage see Oppenheim Dreams p. 200f. Compare the following autobiographical confession of R. Hayyim Vital cited in Idel Kabbalah, p. 81: "In 1566, on the Sabbath eve, on the 8th of Tevet, I said Kiddush and sat down to eat; and my eyes were shedding tears, and I was sighing and grieving ... and I likewise wept for [my] neglect of the study of Torah ... and because of my worry I did not eat at all, and I lay on my bed on my face, weeping, and I fell asleep out of much weeping, and I dreamt a wondrous dream." Vital then had a highly elaborate revelation reported as a vision rather than as a dream. He saw a beautiful woman whom he thought to be his mother, and who asked him: '"Why are you weeping, Hayyim, my son? I have heard your tears and I have come to help you.' ... and I called to the woman: 'Mother, Mother, help me, so that I may see the Lord sitting upon a throne, the Ancient of Days, his beard white as snow, infinitely splendid."' See also nn. 150 and 162 above.
235 Note especially the letter ABL 1249, where a priest of Ištar of Arbela (Aššur-hamatua) conveys to the king a message from Bel. As in the Assurbanipal passage just quoted, this message was not delivered orally but received in a dream or vision, and is hence (despite its affinities with oral prophecies) not included in the present corpus. Cf. Jer. 23:25ff: "I [YHWH] have heard what the prophets say, the prophets who speak lies in my name and cry, 'I have had a dream, a dream !' How long will it be till they change their tune, these prophets who prophesy lies and give voice to their own inventions? By these dreams which they tell one another these men think they will make my people forget my name, as their fathers forgot my name for the name/by their worship of Baal. If a prophet has a dream, let him tell his dream; if he has my word, let him speak my word in truth."
236 See e.g. n. 243 below. For biblical prophecy see just above and cf. e.g. the vision of Ezekiel by the river Kebar (Ezek. I ). The distinction between "prophets" and "seers" (ḥōzē) also applies to ancient Israel, see Am. 7: 10-17 and Weippert, AOAT 220 (1988) 309.
Simo Parpola
Simo Parpola, 'Assyrian Prophecy', Assyrian Prophecies, SAA 9. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1997; online contents: SAAo/SAA09 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2021 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa09/assyrianprophecy/]