Texts in Conversation
Psalm 103 shares El's title of compassion in the Baal Cycle, using this older description of divine care to explain why God forgives people and treats them with a father's kindness.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.6 I:49
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
At the feet of El she bowed and fell down, she paid him homage and honoured him. She lifted up her voice and cried: Let her rejoice now Athirat and her sons, the goddess and the band of her kinsmen! For dead is Valiant Baal, for perished is the Prince, Lord of the Earth! Aloud cried El to the Great Lady-who-tramples-Yamm Listen, O Great Lady-who-tramples-Yamm. Give the first of your sons; I shall make him king. And the Great Lady-who-tramples-Yamm replied Shall we not make king one who has knowledge and wit? And the Compassionate, El of mercy, replied LLet the finest of pigments be ground, let the people of Baal prepare unguents, the people of the the Son of Dagan crushed herbs. The Great Lady-who-tramples-Yamm replied: Indeed, let us make Athtar the Brilliant king Athtar the Brilliant shall rule!
Psalm 103:8
Hebrew Bible
6 The Lord does what is fair, and executes justice for all the oppressed. 7 The Lord revealed his faithful acts to Moses, his deeds to the Israelites. 8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful; he is patient and demonstrates great loyal love. 9 He does not always accuse and does not stay angry. 10 He does not deal with us as our sins deserve; he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve. 11 For as the skies are high above the earth, so his loyal love towers over his faithful followers. 12 As far as the eastern horizon is from the west, so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers. 14 For he knows what we are made of; he realizes we are made of clay.
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Notes and References
“... El and Yahweh are rendered with a similar compassionate disposition toward
humanity. Like El, Yahweh is a father (Deuteronomy 32:6; Isaiah 63:16, 64:7;
Jeremiah 3:4, 19; 31:9; Malachi 1:6, 2:10; cf. Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1) with a
compassionate disposition, many times expressed as “merciful and gracious god,”
’e¯l-ra¯hfiuˆm weˇhfiannuˆn (Exodus 34:6; Jonah 4:2; Joel 2:13; Psalms 86:15; 103:8; 145:
8; Nehemiah 9:17). ...”
Smith, Mark S.
The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts
(p. 142) 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.
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