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Genesis shares Ugarit's description of wine as blood from plants, using a familiar image for rich harvests in the blessing of Judah.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.4 IV:37
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
Why has the Creatress of the Gods come? Are you famished from your travels Or are you parched from your journey? Eat or drink: Consume food from the tables Sip wine from goblets From a golden cup, the blood of trees. Or does El the King's 'hand' excite you The love of the Bull stir you? And Lady Athirat of the Sea replies: Your decree, El, is wise You possess eternal wisdom Victory is your decree. Our king is Mightiest Baal Our ruler, with none above him. All of us will gift him All of us will offer him a cup. In sorrow he calls to Bull El, his Father To El, the King who created him. He cries to Athirat and her sons The goddess and her brood: For Baal lacks a house like the gods A court like Athirat's sons.
Genesis 49:11
Hebrew Bible
8 Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies, your father’s sons will bow down before you. 9 You are a lion’s cub, Judah, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches and lies down like a lion; like a lioness—who will rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him. 11 Binding his foal to the vine, and his colt to the choicest vine, he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes will be red from wine, and his teeth white from milk. 13 Zebulun will live by the haven of the sea and become a haven for ships; his border will extend to Sidon.
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Notes and References
“... 104 For the metaphorical analogy of of blood as wine, see Isaiah 49:26: "as with wine,
with their (own) blood they shall be drunk." The analogy between wine and blood is also
reflected in the well-attested characterization of wine as the "blood of the vine/grapes."
For West Semitic examples, see KTU/CAT 1.4 III 43-44, IV 37-38; Genesis 49:11; Deu-
teronomy 32:14 (mentioned by Sperling, "Blood," 761); and the Latin transliteration of
Punic in Plautus, Poenulus, 1142: neste ien nested um et, "Let us drink wine; let us drink
the blood of the vine," cited in: Charles R. Krahmalkov, Phoenician-Punic Dictionary
(OLA 90; Studia Phoenicia XV, Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse ...”
Smith, Mark S.
God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World
(p. 60) Mohr Siebeck, 2008
* 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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