Texts in Conversation
In Deuteronomy 31, Joshua's appointment at the meeting tent shares El's dwelling in the Baal Cycle as a place to meet a god, presenting Israel's new leader as someone called into the presence of its divine ruler.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.3 V:7
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
“I shall trample him like a lamb to the ground; I shall make his gray hair run with blood, the gray hair of his beard with gore, if he does not give a house to Baal like the gods, and a dwelling like the sons of Athirat!” She stamped her feet, and the earth shook. Then she set her face towards El at the source of the rivers, amidst the springs of the two deeps. She rolled back the tent of El, and came to the pavilion of the King, the Father of the Bright One. She came to the territory, the tent of the creator. Bull El her father heard her voice. El replied from within the seven chambers, through the eight façades of the closed rooms: […] Above […] “At the feet of the divine assistants I fall: I am much afraid!
Deuteronomy 31:14
Hebrew Bible
13 Then their children, who have not known this law, will also hear about and learn to fear the Lord your God for as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” 14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The day of your death is near. Summon Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting so that I can commission him.” So Moses and Joshua presented themselves in the tent of meeting. 15 The Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud that stood above the door of the tent. 16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they are going. They will reject me and break my covenant that I have made with them.
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Notes and References
“... Moreover, the description of Yahweh’s
dwelling-place as a “tent” (’o¯hel) (e.g., Psalms 15:1; 27:6; 91:10; 132:3), called in
the Pentateuchal traditions the “tent of meeting” (’ohel moˆ‘e¯d) (Exodus 33:7–11;
Numbers 12:5, 10; Deuteronomy 31:14, 15), recalls the tent of El. The tabernacle
of Yahweh has qeˇra¯sˇıˆm, usually understood as “boards” (Exodus 26–40); Numbers
3:36; 4:31), whereas the dwelling of El is called qrsˇ, perhaps “tabernacle” or “pa-
vilion” (CAT 1.2 III 5; 1.3 V 8; 1.4 IV 24; 1.17 V 49). ...”
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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