Texts in Conversation
Habakkuk shares Anat's threat of a blow to the head, showing that its picture of God's victory uses battle language already familiar in Ugaritic stories.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.18 I:11
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
[…] I will break […] […] [his father], also […] And Virgin Anat replied: “Let not the sons of your house, O El, let not the daughters of your house rejoice, let not the children of your palace rejoice! I shall surely seize them in my right hand; I shall smite them by the strength of my long arm! I shall smite you on your skull; I shall make your gray hair run with blood, the gray hair of your beard with gore! Then let Aqhat come to you, and let the son of Danel deliver you, and let him save you from the hand of Virgin Anat!” But the Wise One, El the perceptive, replied: “I know you, daughter, that you are pitiless, and that among goddesses there is no contempt like yours!
Habakkuk 3:13
Hebrew Bible
8 Was the Lord mad at the rivers? Were you angry with the rivers? Were you enraged at the sea? Such that you would climb into your horse-drawn chariots, your victorious chariots? 9 Your bow is ready for action; you commission your arrows. Selah. You cause flash floods on the earth’s surface. 10 When the mountains see you, they shake. The torrential downpour sweeps through. The great deep shouts out; it lifts its hands high. 11 The sun and moon stand still in their courses; the flash of your arrows drives them away, the bright light of your lightning-quick spear. 12 You furiously stomp on the earth; you angrily trample down the nations. 13 You march out to deliver your people, to deliver your special servant. You strike the leader of the wicked nation, laying him open from the lower body to the neck. Selah.
Search:
Notes and References
“... However, this similarity does not prove that this
Biblical text has a literary connection with Ugaritic conflict
myths. ... Moreover, the expression 'strike/ smite the head
of somebody' seems to appear in a context other than the
Chaoskampf myth even in Ugaritic. Thus, in KTU 1.18:10f. the
goddess Anat threatens her father god El with bodily violence,
saying: ... 'I will strike you on your skull.’76 It
seems that the expression 'strike/ smite the head of somebody'
was already a literary cliché in the Ugaritic literature. ...”
* 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
,