Instructions of Shuruppak: 4,600 Years Ago, A Sumerian King Instructed His Son on How to Behave

The Instructions of Shuruppak are a set of 4,600-year-old Sumerian proverbs given by a king to his son, which essentially set out how he should behave. The ancient inscriptions were engraved in cuneiform script on clay tablets, and today they are among the oldest surviving literary texts in the world. A number of researchers have compared the Instructions of Shuruppak to the Ten Commandments and some of the proverbs in the Bible.

Giving Fatherly Advice

The Instructions of Shuruppak are attributed to the ruler of Shuruppak, the last king of Sumer to have reigned before the time of the Great Flood. The father of this king was Ubara-Tutu, whose name is recorded in most copies of the Sumerian King List, and is reputed to have lived for 18,500 years before Mesopotamia was struck by the Great Flood. In the Instructions of Shuruppak, the king is portrayed as giving advice to his son, Ziusudra (known in Akkadian as Utnapishtin):

“My son, I would instruct you,
Take my instructions,
Ziusudra, I would utter a word to you,
Give heed to it,
Do not neglect my instruction,
Do not transgress the word I uttered,
The father’s instructions, the precious,
Carry out diligently.”