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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 25

1 O Lord, you are my God! I will exalt you in praise, I will extol your fame. For you have done extraordinary things, and executed plans made long ago exactly as you decreed. 2 Indeed, you have made the city into a heap of rubble, the fortified town into a heap of ruins; the fortress of foreigners is no longer a city, it will never be rebuilt. 3 So a strong nation will extol you; the towns of powerful nations will fear you. 4 For you are a protector for the poor, a protector for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm, a shade from the heat. Though the breath of tyrants is like a winter rainstorm, 5 like heat in a dry land, you humble the boasting foreigners. Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. 6 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will hold a banquet for all the nations⁠ on this mountain.⁠ At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine—tender meat and choicest wine. 7 On this mountain he will swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations; 8 he will swallow up death permanently.⁠ The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.⁠ Indeed, the Lord has announced it!⁠ 9 At that time they will say, “Look, here is our God! We waited for him, and he delivered us. Here is the Lord! We waited for him. Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!” 10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain23.⁠ Moab will be trampled down where it stands, as a heap of straw is trampled down in a manure pile.⁠ 11 Moab will spread out its hands in the middle of it, just as a swimmer spreads his hands to swim; the Lord will bring down Moab’s pride as it spreads its hands. 12 The fortified city (along with the very tops of your walls) he will knock down, he will bring it down, he will throw it down to the dusty ground.

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.5 I:7 and Isaiah 25:8

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Isaiah 25 reverses Mot's threat to swallow Baal in the Baal Cycle, using the same image to promise that Israel's God will end Death's power over people.

Passages

KTU 1.5 I:7

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Though you struck Litan the wriggling serpent, finished off the writhing serpent, Encircler-with-seven-heads, the skies will be hot, they will shine when I tear you in pieces: I shall devour you, elbows, blood and forearms; You will indeed go down into the throat of divine Mot (death), into the maw of the Beloved of El, the hero. The gods departed and did not stay. Then they set their faces towards the lord of the heights of Sapan, and Gupan and Ugar said: Message of divine Mot (death), word of the Beloved of El, the hero: My appetite is the appetite of the lion in the wasteland as the desire of the shark is in the sea; as wild bulls yearn for pools, or the hind longs for the spring. Look, in truth does my throat devour clay and with both my hands I devour them.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Isaiah 25:8

Hebrew Bible
6 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will hold a banquet for all the nations on this mountain. At this banquet there will be plenty of meat and aged wine—tender meat and choicest wine. 7 On this mountain he will swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations; 8 he will swallow up death permanently. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. Indeed, the Lord has announced it! 9 At that time they will say, “Look, here is our God! We waited for him, and he delivered us. Here is the Lord! We waited for him. Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!”
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

References

“... Baal confronts four foes with basically the same names in the Ugaritic material and Yahweh in the Bible: Sea (Hebrew ya¯m, Ugaritic ym); biblical Leviathan (liwya¯ta¯n) and Ugaritic ltn; bib- lical tannı¯n, Ugaritic tnn (tunnanu in the Ugaritic polyglot, spelled Tunnanu in the English translation later); and biblical Mawet and Ugaritic Mot, both literally meaning “Death.” For Baal, most are enemies of old, but Sea (Yamm) and Death (Mot) are ongoing threats, a notion entirely missing from most biblical or Meso- potamian conflict stories, though not from biblical apocalyptic and other genres. [...] Here the cosmic enemies’ defeat serves as prelude to creation. In contrast, Isaiah 27:1 presents Leviathan’s defeat as a sign of the end-times. Isaiah 25:8 likewise proclaims a reversal of the power of the cosmic enemy, Death. The image of God there swallowing up Death reverses the comparable image of Death’s demanding to swallow Baal in Ugaritic (CAT 1.5 I 6–8, II 2–6). ...”
Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 36.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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KTU 1.5 I:7 and Isaiah 25:8

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