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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Kirta

KTU 1.14 I

([Pertaining to "Kir]ta.")
[ ] kin[g ]
[ ] . . . . [ ]
[ Kirta (the Noble) ]
[ Naaman, the La]d of El[ ]
[ ] . . . . . . . kinship
[ ] sept. The house
of [a k]ing is destroyed, that had seven
[bro]thers, eight mother's sons.
Kirta in offspring is ruined,
Kirta is undermined of establishment.
His lawful wife he did find,
his legitimate spouse:
he married the woman, and she "departed."
Flesh of kinship had he:
A third died in health;
A quarter by disease.
A fifth was gathered by Rashap;⁠
A sixth by the Lad of Yamm.
A seventh part, by the sword it was felled.
He sees his progeny, Kirta,
He sees his progeny ruined,⁠
wholly undermined his seat,
and in its entirety a posterity perishing,
and in its totality a succession.
He enters his cubicle, he weeps,
an inner chamber and cries.
His tears drop
like shekels to the ground.
His bed was soaked⁠
by his weeping, and he slept⁠
a slumber in his crying.
Sleep prevails (over him?)
and he lies, slumber
and he reclines. And in his dream⁠
El descends, in his vision
the Father of Man (Adam). And he approaches
asking Kirta: "What ails you,⁠
Kirta, that he weeps,
that he cries, Naaman the Lad⁠
of El? Is it the kingship of Bull his father
that he desires, or authority
like the Father of Man (Adam)?" [ ? ]
[Here El doubtless offers
Kirta 'silver and gold and perpetual
slaves,' etc. (cf. ll. 53 ff.; 126 ff.;
137 ff.; 250 ff.; 269 ff.; 282 ff.).
But Kirta replies:
"What need]
[have I of silver and yellow-glittering]

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.14 I:31 and Genesis 28:12

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

The Legend of Kirta and Genesis 28 both describe a hero who falls asleep and receives a divine visit with promises. In Kirta, El descends in a dream; in Genesis, God stands above a stairway and promises Jacob descendants like the dust of the earth.

Passages

KTU 1.14 I:31

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
He enters his cubicle, he weeps, an inner chamber and cries. His tears drop like shekels to the ground. His bed was soaked by his weeping, and he slept a slumber in his crying. Sleep prevails (over him?) and he lies, slumber and he reclines. And in his dream El descends, in his vision the Father of Man (Adam). And he approaches
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Genesis 28:12

Hebrew Bible
10 Meanwhile Jacob left Beer Sheba and set out for Haran. 11 He reached a certain place where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones and placed it near his head. Then he fell asleep in that place 12 and had a dream. He saw a stairway erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it 13 and the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the ground you are lying on. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. And so all the families of the earth may receive blessings through you and through your descendants. 15 I am with you! I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!” 16 Then Jacob woke up and thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it!”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

References

"... The close relationship between Canaanite El and Israel's God is particularly noticeable in the stories of Israel's ancestors preserved in Genesis 12xe2x80x9336. The name El surfaces numerous times as the name of the deity worshiped by the ancestors. Abram is connected to the worship of El Elyon (“El the Highest One”), “creator of heaven and earth”, in Genesis 14.18-24, and of El Olam (“El, the Ancient One”) in Genesis 21.33. Jacob (Genesis 28.10-22) has a dream that he is at the foot of a staircase to heaven and names the shrine he sets up at that spot, Beth-El (“House of El”). Later, Jacob buys some land near the town of Shechem and builds an altar on the land, which he names El-elohe-Yisrael, “El is the God of Israel” (Genesis 33.18-20) ..."
Wayne T. Pitard, “Voices from the Dust: The Tablets from Ugarit and the Bible,” in Mesopotamia and the Bible: Comparative Explorations, ed. Mark W. Chavalas and K. Lawson Younger Jr., JSOTSup 341 (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002), 258–259.

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 1.14 I:31 and Genesis 28:12

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