Ludlul bēl nēmeqi

[9] There is a court order found in Ur, dated to the sixteenth year of Nazi-Maruttaš (1292 BC), in which Šubši-mašrâ-šakkan is given the title šakin māti, lúGAR KUR, "governor of the country."

[10] The poetic work, Ludlul bēl nēmeqi, describes how the fortunes of Šubši-mašrâ-Šakkan, a rich man of high rank, turned one day.

This resulted in him losing his property, "they have divided all my possessions among foreign riffraff," friends, "my city frowns on me as an enemy; indeed my land is savage and hostile," physical strength, "my flesh is flaccid, and my blood has ebbed away," and health, as he relates that he "wallowed in my excrement like a sheep.

"[11] While slipping into and out of consciousness on his death bed, his family already conducting his funeral, Urnindinlugga, a kalû, or incantation priest, was sent by Marduk to presage his salvation.

Of the fifty-eight extant fragmentary copies of Ludlul bēl nēmeqi the great majority date to the neo-Assyrian and neo-Babylonian periods.