This long and well-preserved tablet contains a commentary on the series of astrological omens Enūma Anu Enlil. The entries explained in the tablet are extracted mainly from the 16th chapter of that series, which deals with lunar eclipses. In addition, the last entries of the tablet comment on entries from the 19th tablet of Enūma Anu Enlil, which is devoted to the same topic.
The colophon of the tablet identifies Iprāʾya, (grand)son of Arad-Baʾu, descendant of Ēṭiru, as its owner. This scribe also copied one of the commentaries on “Marduk’s Address to the Demons,” BM 47529 (CCP 2.2.1.B), as well several small treatises that compile medical, astrological, and hemerological material. The present tablet is dated to the 19th year of one of the three Persian kings named Artaxerxes, i.e., to 445, 385, or 339 BCE. The tablet may come from Babylon or perhaps Borsippa (the latter city is suggested by the mention of Nabû in the colophon).
The main interest of the tablet is in providing philological explanations for obscure words and writings. The last few lines of the text, however, are concerned with providing astronomical directions to ensure the correct interpretation of the omens. In at least one case (ll. 41-46) the commentary tries to demonstrate the internal consistency of an omen by proving that a word from its protasis is “etymologically” related to a word from its apodosis.
The text uses many technical terms. aššu, “because,” is used to provide justifications for commentarial equations (ll. 3, 4-5, 58, and 61 (?)). The term šanîš, “alternatively,” is used to introduce alternative explanations to the same explananda (ll. 13, 23, 27, 29, 54, and 63). In one of the explanations the term šanîš is followed by kayyān, “regular,” which is used to denote the “actual” meaning of a given entry (in this case, its contextual sense). ana muḫḫi ... qabi, “it is said on account of...,” which is used to refine the scope of an entry. Thus line 2 specifies that an omen, “If there is an eclipse and lightning strikes," refers to a particular season of the year - it "is said on account of summer" (ana muḫḫi ummāti qabi). The commentary thus limits the omen's applicability. Similarly, the omen “the gods will make the king live long” is explained in the commentary as “said to refer to an abandoned land” (ana muḫḫi māti nadīti qabi, ll. 14-15). A very rare technical expresion that appears several times in this text is mala iqbû, which is used when the term being explained appears in more than one of the lines of the base text (ll. 10, 13-14, and 39-49). It can thus be freely rendered as “on all the occasions it appears.”
Another rare technical term used in this tablet is umma, "thus," which is reminiscent of the use of the speech introduction particle, mā, used to introduce explanations in Assyrian commentaries. In lines 47-48, the entry “the people of the land will see their enemies,” which is written in an ambiguous way, is explained by means of an unambiguous rendering.
The tablet has been thoroughly collated for the present edition. Almost every line below contains improved readings; some of them are of great relevance for the understanding of the exegetical techniques used in the commentary (e.g. 34-36, 47-48, and 57).
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