Texts in Conversation
In the Baal Cycle, the god Kothar puts a window in Baal’s palace, which Baal resists for fear the god of Death could enter. Jeremiah describes Death climbing through the windows into fortified houses, the same image of Death entering through an opening.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
The Baal Cycle
Ancient Near East
A vent in the midst of the palace? And Mightiest Baal retorts: You shall not install a window in the house A vent in the midst of the palace. And Kothar-wa-Hasis responds: You will revert, Baal, to my suggestion. Kothar-wa-Hasis inquires again: Please hear, Mightiest Baal: Shall I not fit a window in the house A vent in the midst of the palace? And Mightiest Baal retorts: You shall not install a window in the house A vent in the midst of the palace. So that Pidray, Daughter of Light
Date: 1500 - 1300 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Jeremiah 9:21
Hebrew Bible
20 I said, “So now, you wailing women, listen to the Lord’s message. Open your ears to the message from his mouth. Teach your daughters this mournful song, and let every woman teach her neighbor this lament. 21 ‘Death has climbed in through our windows. It has entered into our fortified houses. It has taken away our children who play in the streets. It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’ 22 Tell your daughters and neighbors, ‘The Lord says:“The dead bodies of people will lie scattered everywhere like manure scattered on a field. They will lie scattered on the ground like grain that has been cut down but has not been gathered.”’”
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Notes and References
... arguing that Baal’s concern about the window reflects his fear that his enemy, Mot, who becomes the god’s great antagonist in the last part of the cycle, will attack him by slipping into the palace through the window. The primary support for this explanation was found in the extraordinary biblical passage, Jeremiah 9:20, which appears to make allusion to an attack by Mot (Death) upon a fortress into which he enters through a window: "for Death has come up into our windows, he has entered our citadels." Cassuto saw this verse as a reminiscence of the story of Baal and Mot. This explanation of Baal’s reluctance was widely accepted by Ginsberg, Albright, Loewenstamm, and Petersen and Woodward, among others. ...
Smith, Mark S. and Pitard, Wayne T.
The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume II: Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU/CAT 1.3-1.4
(p. 603) Brill, 2009
* 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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