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Ezekiel 14 lists four punishments, sword, famine, wild animals, and plague. A plea in the Epic of Gilgamesh uses similar language when the god Baal is asked to use the same kinds of punishments instead of bringing another flood.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Epic of Gilgamesh XI 188
Ancient Near East, Babylonian
178 saying to the hero Enlil: 179 “Who, if not Ea, can accomplish (such) things? 180 For Ea alone knows (how to do) all tasks,” 181 Ea opened his mouth to speak, 182 saying to the hero Enlil: 183 “You, the sage of the gods, the hero, 184 how could you lack counsel and cause the deluge? 185 On him who commits a sin, inflict his crime! 186 on him who does wrong, inflict [his] wrong-doing! 187 Slack off, lest it be snapped! Pull taut, lest it become [slack!] 188 Instead of the Deluge you caused, 189 a lion could arise to diminish the people! 190 Instead of the Deluge you caused, 191 a wolf could arise to diminish the people! 192 Instead of the Deluge you caused, 193 a famine could happen to slaughter the land! 194 Instead of the Deluge you caused, 195 Erra could arise to slaughter the land! 196 I did not myself disclose the great gods’ secret; 197 I let Atra-ḫasīs see a dream and so he heard the gods’ secret. 198 And now, consider what is to be done with him.”
Date: 2100 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Ezekiel 14:21
Hebrew Bible
21 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send my four terrible judgments—sword, famine, wild animals, and plague—to Jerusalem to kill both people and animals! 22 Yet some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their behavior and their deeds, you will be consoled about the catastrophe I have brought on Jerusalem—for everything I brought on it. 23 They will console you when you see their behavior and their deeds, because you will know that it was not without reason that I have done everything that I have done in it, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... With respect to the range of the comparisons that have been made between Ezekiel and Mesopotamian literature, the focus is generally not on the whole book, only select texts or blocks of material in Ezekiel ... In most cases, this is in no small measure due to the understanding that Ezekiel underwent intense redactional activity, a view espoused especially by Zimmerli and others before him. Although this diachronic approach is helpful, it can deter from a fruitful analysis of the literary whole. Furthermore, the literary repertoire from the ancient Near East that has been compared with portions of Ezekiel covers a wide array of genres. At least nine different genres have been used. Some of these include historiographic poems, dream reports, victory songs, and poetic laments. These genres, likewise, span the centuries. They reach back as early as Sumerian civilization, include Canaanite mythology, and extend down to the sixth century B.C. (A few samples will suffice to illustrate. Ezekiel 14 has been compared with Tablet XI of Gilgamesh, Ezekiel 23:20 with a Sumerian proverb, and Ezekiel 9 with the Poem of Erra) ..."
Donna Lee Petter, The Book of Ezekiel and Mesopotamian City Laments (Fribourg: Academic Press Fribourg, 2011), 3.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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