Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 25 reverses Mot's threat to swallow Baal in the Baal Cycle, using the same image to promise that Israel's God will end Death's power over people.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.5 I:7
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
Though you smote Litan the wriggling serpent, finished off the writhing serpent, Encircler-with-seven-heads, the skies will be hot, they will shine when I tear you in pieces: I shall devour you, elbows, blood and forearms; You will indeed go down into the throat of divine Mot (death), into the maw of the Beloved of El, the hero. The gods departed and did not stay. Thereupon they set their faces towards the lord of the heights of Sapan, and Gupan and Ugar said: Message of divine Mot (death), word of the Beloved of El, the hero: My appetite is the appetite of the lion in the wasteland as the desire of the shark is in the sea; as wild bulls yearn for pools, or the hind longs for the spring. Look, in truth does my throat devour clay and with both my hands I devour them.
Isaiah 25:8
Hebrew Bible
6 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine—tender meat and choicest wine. 7 On this mountain he will swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations; 8 he will swallow up death permanently. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. Indeed, the Lord has announced it! 9 At that time they will say, “Look, here is our God! We waited for him, and he delivered us. Here is the Lord! We waited for him. Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!”
Search:
Notes and References
“... Baal confronts four foes with
basically the same names in the Ugaritic material and Yahweh in the Bible: Sea
(Hebrew ya¯m, Ugaritic ym);70 biblical Leviathan (liwya¯ta¯n) and Ugaritic ltn;71 bib-
lical tannı¯n, Ugaritic tnn (tunnanu in the Ugaritic polyglot,72 spelled Tunnanu in
the English translation later); and biblical Mawet and Ugaritic Mot, both literally
meaning “Death.”73 For Baal, most are enemies of old, but Sea (Yamm) and Death
(Mot) are ongoing threats, a notion entirely missing from most biblical or Meso-
potamian conflict stories, though not from biblical apocalyptic and other genres. [...] Here the cosmic enemies’ defeat serves as prelude to creation. In contrast, Isaiah
27:1 presents Leviathan’s defeat as a sign of the end-times. Isaiah 25:8 likewise
proclaims a reversal of the power of the cosmic enemy, Death. The image of God
there swallowing up Death reverses the comparable image of Death’s demanding
to swallow Baal in Ugaritic (CAT 1.5 I 6–8, II 2–6). ...”
Smith, Mark S.
The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts
(p. 36) Oxford University Press, 2001
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,