Instructions of Shuruppak

The "Instructions of Shuruppak" form a well-known Sumerian "wisdom" text, ["The most significant piece of wisdom literature in Sumerian", asserts Paul-Alain Beaulieu, in Richard J. Clifford, ed., "Wisdom Literature in Mesopotamia and Israel" 2007:4.] a genre of literature common in the Ancient Near East intended to teach proper piety, inculcate virtue and preserve community standing. [ [http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/myths/texts/life/instructionshruppak.html Instructions of Shuruppak:] from W.G. Lambert (1996) "Babylonian Wisdom Literature". (Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, Indiana) Includes on-line English translation of the text.] The text is set in great antiquity by its incipit "In those days, in those far remote times, in those nights, in those faraway nights, in those years, in those far remote years". The precepts are placed in the mouth of a king "Shuruppak, son of Ubara-Tutu": Ubara-Tutu was the last king of Sumer before the universal deluge.

The "Instructions" consist of admonitory sayings addressed to his son Ziusudra, better known under his Akkadian name, Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah. The name "Shuruppak", otherwise instanced as one of the five antediluvian cities in the Sumerian tradition, [The others are Eridu, Bad-Tibira, Larsa and Sippar.] appears in one cuneiform tablet of the Sumerian King List, where it is interpolated as an extra generation between Ubara-Tutu and Ziusudra, who are in every other instance father and son; Lambert reports that it has been suggested that the intruder might have arisen through an epithet of the father ("man of Shuruppak") having been taken wrongly for a proper name.

The Abu Salabikh tablet of the mid-third millennium BCE, is the oldest extant copy, but the numerous school copies show that this continued to be a revered work of the Sumerian/Akkadian literary canon. [Two fragmentary Akkadian versions survive, from the 15th century BCE and from the end of the second millennium BCE: "Its great antiquity and popularity is evidenced by the large number of manuscripts of it that have survived" (Beaulieu in Clifford 2007:4).]

Counsels in the three conjoined lists are pithy, occupying one to three lines of cuneiform. Some counsel is purely practical: "You should not locate a field on a road; .... You should not make a well in your field: people will cause damage on it for you." (lines 15–18). Moral precepts are followed by the negative practical results of transgression: "You should not play around with a married young woman: the slander could be serious." (lines 32–34). Community opinion and the possibility of slander (line 35) play a major role, whether the valued opinion of "the courtyard" (line 62) or the less valued opinion of the marketplace, where "insults and stupid speaking receive the attention of the Land." (line 142).

The Shuruppak instructions contain precepts later included in the early first millennium BCE Ten Commandments [ [http://www.schoyencollection.com/sumerianlit.htm The Schoyen Collection website] ] notes, from a Neo-Sumerian tablet of ca. 1900–1700 BCE: line 50: "Do not curse with powerful means" (3rd Commandment); line 28: "Do not kill" (6th Commandment); lines 33–34: "Do not laugh with or sit alone in a chamber with a girl that is married" (7th Commandment); lines 28–31: "Do not steal or commit robbery" (8th Commandment); and line 36: "Do not spit out lies" (9th Commandment).] and other sayings that are reflected in the Biblical Book of Proverbs.

Notes

References

*Bendt Alster "The Instructions of Shuruppak. A Sumerian Proverb Collection", (Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag) 1974.
* [http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr561.htm (The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature): "The Instructions of Shuruppag" English translation of composite text] , and [http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/b561.htm bibliography] .