Marduk sets the constellations, fixes the year and the months, and makes the moon to mark time. Much of this tablet is damaged.
2He set in heaven the Stars of the Zodiac which are their likenesses.
3He fixed the year, he appointed the limits thereof.
4He set up for the twelve months three stars apiece.
5According to the day of the year he ... figures.
6He founded the Station of Nibir (Jupiter) to settle their boundaries,
7That none might exceed or fall short.
8He set the Station of Bel and Ea thereby.
9He opened great gates under shelter on both sides.
10He made a strong corridor on the left and on the right.
11He fixed the zenith in the heavenly vault (?)
12He gave the god Nannar (i.e., the Moon-god) his brightness and committed the night to his care.
13He set him for the government of the night, to determine the day
14Monthly, without fail, he set him in a crown (i.e., disk) [saying]:
15"At the beginning of the month when thou risest over the land,
16"Make [thy] horns to project to limit six days [of the month]
17"On the seventh day make thyself like a crown.
18"On the fourteenth day ...
75The gods, his (Marduk's) fathers, looked on the net which he had made,
76They observed how craftily the bow had been constructed,
77They extolled the work which he had done.
78[Then] the god Anu lifted up [the bow] in the company of the gods,
79He kissed the bow [saying]: "That ..."
80He proclaimed [the names] of the bow to be as follows:--
81"Verily, the first is 'Long Wood,' the second is ...
82"Its third name is 'Bow Star in heaven' ..."
83He fixed a station for it ...
Lines 19-26 dealt further with Marduk's instructions to the Moon-god, but are too fragmentary to translate. After line 26 comes a break in the text of 40 lines; lines 66-74 are too fragmentary to translate, but they seem to have described further acts of Creation.
Of the remaining 57 lines of this tablet only fragments of 17 lines are preserved, and these yield no connected sense.
Editorial restorations by the translator are in [square brackets]; “…” and italic notes mark where the tablet is broken. Bracketed scene-headings are the translator's, not part of the text.