Texts in Conversation
The Song of Solomon calls love as strong as death, which may be a reference to the Baal Cycle and the Canaanite god of death Mot. This would compare love against the cosmic power of death.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.6
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
They glowered at each other like burning coals. Mot was strong; Baal was strong. They gored like wild bulls. Mot was strong; Baal was strong. They bit like serpents. Mot was strong; Baal was strong. They tugged like hunting-dogs. Mot fell. Baal fell on top of him.
Date: 2300 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Song of Solomon 8:6
Song of Songs
Hebrew Bible
5 The Maidens about His Beloved: Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? The Beloved to Her Lover: Under the apple tree I aroused you; there your mother conceived you; there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth. 6 The Beloved to Her Lover: Set me like a cylinder seal over your heart, like a signet on your arm. For love is as strong as death; passion is as unrelenting as Sheol. Its flames burst forth; it is a blazing flame. 7 Surging waters cannot quench love; floodwaters cannot overflow it. If someone were to offer all his possessions to buy love, the offer would be utterly despised.
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Notes and References
... So far as I am aware, surprisingly only N.J. Tromp has hitherto pointed to the fact that a comparison of love with Resheph (or the Reshephs) is thematically appropriate in this verse, since Resheph was an underworld god, which fits the declaration 'love is strong as death' (though Tromp inconsistently also associates Resheph with lightning here). We may compare Hosea 13:14, where Sheol/death has its plagues (from deber) and destruction (from qeteb), words elsewhere connected with resheph (compare Deuteronomy 32:24; Habakkuk 3:5; Psalm 78:49). The phrase 'strong as death' also has a mythological background, for we read that 'Mot was strong' (mt. 'z) in the Ugaritic texts (KTU 1.6.VI.17-18, 20), as has been noted earlier. ...
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