Texts in Conversation
Psalm 88's plea assumes a distance between God and the dead that contrasts with Baal's ties to dead ancestors in the Ugaritic Rephaim texts, making death a loss of access to divine help.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.22 I:8
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
[…] here is your son, here […] your son's son in your place; here the [hero] […] your hand; the little one will kiss your lips. There shoulder by shoulder are the brothers whom El raised up […]. There […] the name of El, the men […] the name of El, the heroes. There Tmq, the Rephaite of Baal, the soldier of Baal and the soldier of Anat. There Yhpn the mighty, the prince, the eternal king. When Anat goes hunting, […] the birds of the sky. Oxen are slaughtered, sheep as well; bulls are felled and fatted rams, year-old calves,
Psalm 88:12
Hebrew Bible
9 My eyes grow weak because of oppression. I call out to you, O Lord, all day long; I spread out my hands in prayer to you. 10 Do you accomplish amazing things for the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and give you thanks? (Selah) 11 Is your loyal love proclaimed in the grave, or your faithfulness in the place of the dead? 12 Are your amazing deeds experienced in the dark region, or your deliverance in the land of oblivion? 13 As for me, I cry out to you, O Lord; in the morning my prayer confronts you. 14 O Lord, why do you reject me, and hide your face from me?23 15 I am oppressed and have been on the verge of death since my youth. I have been subjected to your horrors and am numb with pain. 16 Your anger overwhelms me; your terrors destroy me.
Search:
Notes and References
“... Second, the Psalms express an inner-Israelite religious innovation that constructed
the separation of Yahweh from Death and his underworld realm (Pss. 6:7[6] ; 88:13[12];
115:17; Lewis 1989: 170), in contrast to Baal’s association with revered ancestral spirits
(cf. “the Rephaim of Baal” in KTU 1.22 I 8, SAC 62). As a corollary, the Psalms show a
rejection of devotion to the dead as traditionally practiced in ancient Israel (see Psalm
16 discussed above), also seen in the Ugaritic texts (e.g., a royal version of such devotion
in KTU 1.161). Th e Psalms represent the Israelite deity as the God of the living and as the
living God (Feldmeier and Spieckermann 2011). ...”
Smith, Mark S.
"Canaanite Backgrounds to the Psalms" in Brown, William P. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms
(p. 53) Oxford University Press, 2014
* 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
,