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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Baal and the Devourers

KTU 1.12 I

[…]
[…] of the earth
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…] like the dawn
[…] like […]
Our insides, El our father,
our insides like fire they devour,
our breasts like […] they gnaw.
El laughs in his
heart, and […] in his liver:
“Go out, you, O Tls,
handmaid of Yarih,
O Dmgy, handmaid
of Athirat, take
your chair, your […]
your […], and go out
among the oaks […]
in the midst of the wilderness.
[…]
dig with the forearms
in the dust, with the bones of the hand
[…] writhe, give birth to⁠
the Devourers, […]
and give birth to the […].”
The gods proclaim
their names.
On them are horns
like bulls, and humps
like steers,
and on them the face of Baal.
Baal walks about and hunts,
[…] the edge of the wilderness.
[…] he reaches the Devourers,
and he finds the […].
Baal desires them greatly,
the son of Dagan […].
Baal goes after them on foot,
and the god Haddu […].

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.12 I:25 and Genesis 16:11

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Genesis' story of Hagar may share Ugaritic accounts of servant women receiving divine help with childbirth, giving a woman with little power a place in God's plans for a people.

Passages

KTU 1.12 I:25

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
El laughs in his heart, and […] in his liver: “Go out, you, O Tls, handmaid of Yarih, O Dmgy, handmaid of Athirat, take your chair, your […] your […], and go out among the oaks […] in the midst of the wilderness. […] dig with the forearms in the dust, with the bones of the hand […] writhe, give birth to the Devourers, […] and give birth to the […].” The gods proclaim their names. On them are horns like bulls, and humps like steers, and on them the face of Baal. Baal walks about and hunts, […] the edge of the wilderness. […] he reaches the Devourers, and he finds the […]. Baal desires them greatly, the son of Dagan […]. Baal goes after them on foot, and the god Haddu […].
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Genesis 16:11

Hebrew Bible
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring of water in the wilderness—the spring that is along the road to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai.” 9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority. 10 I will greatly multiply your descendants,” the angel of the Lord added, “so that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “You are now pregnant and are about to give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your painful groans. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man. He will be hostile to everyone, and everyone will be hostile to him. He will live away from his brothers.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

References

“... The significance of the entire story is perhaps also made clearer when it is recognized that the theme of the aged and childless patriarch who miraculously begets a son is a direct echo of the hierogamic tradition of the Ugaritic text KTU 1.23. J.R. Porter has shown how the story of Lot and his daughters in Genesis 19.30-38 is related to the Canaanite tradition (Porter 1978). The present context and its variant in the Ishmael cycle (Genesis 16.1ff., 21.8ff.) is also derived from the same milieu (KTU 1.12: Astour 1967: 86; on this material see also Wyatt 1996b: 219-91). The youth- fulness of the child circumcised, so soon after birth, relates directly to his birth as the renewal of the community, and at the same time, being removed from the more overtly sexual context of marriage, makes the passage one of spiritual transformation, from the profane and natural world into the sacred, hieratic one of the confessing people of God. ...”
Nick Wyatt, The Mythic Mind: Essays on Cosmology and Religion in Ugaritic and Old Testament Literature, BibleWorld (Equinox, 2005), 64.

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 1.12 I:25 and Genesis 16:11

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