Hittite Prayers

Itamar Singer was a scholar of Hittite civilization, and this book, published by the Society of Biblical Literature in its Writings from the Ancient World series, presents scholarly English translations of surviving Hittite royal and ritual prayers, edited for the series by Harry A. Hoffner Jr., a leading Hittitologist. Its strength is direct translation from the cuneiform primary sources by a specialist in Hittite language and religion, published in an academic series specifically built to make ancient Near Eastern primary texts accessible with proper scholarly introduction. Its limit is that, as with any ancient cuneiform text, some passages remain damaged or linguistically uncertain, and the translation reflects the state of Hittitological scholarship current to its 2002 publication.