Texts in Conversation
Deuteronomy uses Ugarit's image of wine as blood from plants to celebrate gifts from God, connecting Israel's prosperity with the rich food served at divine feasts.
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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.
Deuteronomy 32:14
Hebrew Bible
13 He enabled him to travel over the heights of the earth, and he ate of the produce of the fields. He provided honey for him from the cliffs, and olive oil from the hardest of rocks, 14 butter from the herd and milk from the flock, along with the fat of lambs, rams and goats of Bashan, along with the best of the kernels of wheat; and from the juice of grapes you drank wine. 15 But Jeshurun became fat and kicked; you got fat, thick, and stuffed! Then he deserted the God who made him, and treated the Rock who saved him with contempt.
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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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