The text is known from several versions: two were written by Assyrian scribes (one in the Assyrian, one in the Babylonian dialect), a third one (on three tablets) was written during the reign of king Ammi-saduqa of Babylonia (1647-1626 BCE). Parts are quoted in Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgame\u0161; other influences are in the Babylonian History by Berossus (quote).

they did forced labor, they bore drudgery.
Great indeed was the drudgery of the gods,
the forced labor was heavy, the misery too much:

canals they opened, the life of the land.
The Igigi-gods were digging watercourses
canals they opened, the life of the land.

and the Euphrates thereafter.
Springs they opened from the depths,
wells ... they established.

They counted years of drudgery,
... and forty years, too much!
... forced labor they bore night and day.
They were complaining, denouncing,

"Let us face up to our foreman the prefect,
he must take off our heavy burden upon us!
Enlil, counsellor of the gods, the warrior,
come, let us remove him from his dwelling;

battle let us join, warfare!"
The gods heard his words:
they set fire to their tools,

and flame to their workbaskets.
Off they went, one and all,
to the gate of the warrior Enlil's abode.

the house was surrounded, but the god did not know.
It was night, half-way through the watch,
Ekur was surrounded, but Enlil did not know!

"Anu, your father,
your counsellor, the warrior Enlil,
your prefect, Ninurta,

Who is the instigator of these hostilities?
Who declared war,
that battle has run up to the gate of Enlil?
In ...

"Everyone of us gods has declared war;
...
We have set ... un the excavation,
excessive drudgery has killed us,

and said to the gods, his brothers:
"What calumny do we lay to their charge?
Their forced labor was heavy, their misery too much!

the outcry was loud, we could hear the clamor.
There is ...
Belet-ili, the midwife, is present.[1]
Let her create, then, a human, a man,

Let him bear the yoke!
Let man assume the drudgery of the god."
Belet-ili, the midwife, is present.

Let man assume the drudgery of the god."
They summoned and asked the goddess
the midwife of the gods, wise Mami:[1]
"Will you be the birth goddess, creatress of mankind?

let him bear the yoke, the task of Enlil,
let man assume the drudgery of the god."
Nintu made ready to speak,[1]
and said to the great gods:

the task is Enki's.
He it is that cleanses all,
let him provide me the clay so I can do the making."
Enki made ready to speak,

"On the first, seventh, and fifteenth days of the month,
let me establish a purification, a bath.
Let one god be slaughtered,
then let the gods be cleansed by immersion.