The ritual and incantation series Šurpu ‘Burning’ is one of the longest and most complex magical texts to survive from the ancient world. The present paper offers a close analysis of repetition and parallelism used in Tablet IV of the text, revealing an intricate web of interconnections, both within Tablet IV, and between Tablet IV and the rest of Šurpu. Through this sophisticated use of poetic techniques, Tablet IV plays a major role in completely reshaping Šurpu, turning it from a plea for help addressed to a wide range of important gods into a ritual focussed almost exclusively on the power of Marduk to help the sufferer.