KTU I.3
Cuneiform Texts from UgaritShe spoke up and cried out, “Why have Gupan and Ugar come here? What enemy rises up against Baal? What rival faces the Cloud-Rider? Didn’t I crush El’s beloved, Yam (Ocean)? Didn’t I annihilate Nahar (River), the great god? Didn’t I leash Dragon and bind him in a saddle? I crushed the Sinuous Serpent, Encircler, the seven-headed monster. I crushed the gods’ beloved, Arsha.
Deuteronomy 33:26
25 The bars of your gates will be made of iron and bronze, and may you have lifelong strength.” 26 “There is no one like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the sky to help you, on the clouds in majesty. 27 The everlasting God is a refuge, and underneath you are his eternal arms; he has driven out enemies before you, and has said, ‘Destroy!’ 28 Israel lives in safety, the fountain of Jacob is quite secure, in a land of grain and new wine; indeed, its heavens rain down dew.
Notes and References
"... A number of West Semitic texts likewise allude to the cosmic conflict between the storm-god and his enemies ... The use of the conflict story to reinforce human kingship appears in a variety of texts, hailing from the city of Mari on the Euphrates river all the way to Egypt. The political use of the conflict between storm-god and cosmic enemies passed into Israelite tradition. Yahweh is not only generally similar to Baal as a storm-god. Yahweh inherited the names of Baal’s cosmic enemies such as Leviathan, Sea, Death, and Tannin, as well as the name of Baal’s home on Mount Saphon, which is secondarily identified with Zion in Psalm 48:3. With this evidence, it would appear that Yahweh’s titles, “Rider of the heavens” (Deuteronomy 33:26; Psalm 104:3) and “Rider of the Steppes” (Psalm 68:5), echo Baal’s own title, “Rider of the Clouds.” The political use of this conflict language also passed into ancient Israel. The biblical parallel between Yahweh, the divine king, and the Davidic ruler, the human king, may be seen in Psalm 89. The parallelism between Yahweh and the king changes, however, in verse 26, and a different sort of notion appears: Yahweh promises to extend his power to the monarch in language associated in Ugaritic with the god Baal ..."
Smith, Mark S. The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts (p. 168) Oxford University Press, 2001