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The Ugaritic text KTU and Isaiah 22 both follow ancient Near Eastern mourning practices by putting ashes on the head, shaving hair, and wearing sackcloth. El’s grief for Baal follows rites that continued in Israelite practice.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.5
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
perished was the Prince, Lord of the earth! Then the Wise One, the perceptive god, went down from his throne: he sat on his footstool. And from his footstool he sat on the ground. He poured the ashes of affliction on his head, the dust of grovelling on his skull For clothing he put on a loin-cloth His skin with a stone he scored, his side-locks with a razor; he gashed cheeks and chin. He ploughed his collar-bones, he turned over like a garden his chest, like a valley he ploughed his breast He lifted up his voice and cried: Baal is dead! What has become of the Powerful One? The Son of Dagan! What has become of Tempest? After Baal I shall go down into the underworld.
Date: 2300 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Isaiah 22:12
Hebrew Bible
11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool—but you did not trust in the one who made it; you did not depend on the one who formed it long ago. 12 At that time the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth. 13 But look, there is outright celebration! You say, “Kill the ox and slaughter the sheep, eat meat and drink wine. Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
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Notes and References
“... The biblical rites of mourning were a set of rites and behaviors established to express grief and sorrow about the deceased by alteration of the regular behavior and appearance of the mourners themselves. Mourning rites can be differentiated between those altering garments or bodily appearance and those of self-mutilation and abasement, including self-laceration and other forms of bodily violation and changed social behavior. ... One immediately apparent feature was the changed appearance of the mourner, which found expression in the tearing of clothes (attested in mortuary contexts in Genesis 37:34; Leviticus 10:6; 21:10; 2 Samuel 1:11; 3:31; Job 1:20); the donning of a special mourning garment, the śaq (Genesis 37:34; 2 Samuel 3:31; Ezekiel 27:31); and the removal of headdresses and sandals. ... one put dust and ashes on one’s head (Joshua 7:6; 1 Samuel 4:12) or rolled in the dirt (Jeremiah 6:26). ...”
Albertz, Rainer and Rüdiger Schmitt
Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant
(p. 434) Eisenbrauns, 2012
* 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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