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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Kirta

KTU 1.14 II

[gold]; . . . . . . . . . . .
[and] perpetual [slaves]; a groom,
[horse]s, chariots from the stable of the son of a handmaid?
[Grant that] I may beget [chil]dren;
[grant that] I may multiply [kins]men."—
And Bull, his father El, [replied]:
Stop weeping, Kirta,
stop crying, gracious one, heir of El.
Wash yourself and rouge yourself;
Wash your [h]and to the elbow,
[your] fing[ers] up to the shoulder.
Enter the shade of a pavilion.
Take a lam[b in your hand],
a lamb of sac[rifice in (your)] right hand,
a kid in th[e other han]d,
. . . . . . . . . [ ] . . . . . .
Take a msrr, bird of
sacrifice. Pour wine [into a bo]wl of⁠
silver, honey into a bowl of [g]old.
{Mount to the top of a [to]wer.}
And mount to the top of a [to]wer;
mount up to the summit of the wall. Lift up your hands⁠
to heaven, sacrifice to Bull⁠
your father, El. Serve Baal
with your sacrifice, the Son of Dagan
with your oblation. Then let Kirta
descend from the housetops. Prepare
grain from the granaries,
wheat from the storehouses.
Let bread be baked of a fifth,
food of a sixth month.
Muster Ngb and let it come forth,
the host of the troops of Ngb.
And let come forth the assembled multitude,⁠
your troops, a mighty force:
three hundred myriads;
serfs uncounted,
peasants untold.
They march in thousands closely packed,
and in myriads massed.
After two, two march;
after three, all of them.
The solitary man closes his house;⁠
the widow hires herself
out; the sick man is carried in
(his) bed; the one-eyed man blinks
with one eye. And even the newly wed
bridegroom goes forth: he drives to another
his wife, to a stranger
his beloved.—(They are) like the locusts
that dwell on the steppe,

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.14 II:18 and Jeremiah 19:13

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

The Legend of Kirta describes rooftop rituals that include offerings of wine, honey, and birds to the gods. Jeremiah refers to similar rooftop sacrifices and condemns them as foreign worship, linking these practices to astral deities.

Passages

KTU 1.14 II:18

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Take a msrr, bird of sacrifice. Pour wine [into a bo]wl of silver, honey into a bowl of [g]old. {Mount to the top of a [to]wer.} And mount to the top of a [to]wer; mount up to the summit of the wall. Lift up your hands to heaven, sacrifice to Bull your father, El. Serve Baal with your sacrifice, the Son of Dagan with your oblation. Then let Kirta descend from the housetops. Prepare
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Jeremiah 19:13

Hebrew Bible
12 I, the Lord, say: ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth. 13 The houses in Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled by dead bodies just like this place, Topheth. For they offered sacrifice to the stars and poured out drink offerings to other gods on the roofs of those houses.’” 14 Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the Lord had sent him to give that prophecy. He went to the Lord’s temple and stood in its courtyard and called out to all the people.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jeremiah

References

"... Mourning in Ugarit seems to have taken forms familiar from other cultures, if the Baal Cycle is any indication: Upon Baal’s death, El and Anat both wail, put on a specific type of clothing (mizrt), and gash their faces, arms, and torsos (see CAT 1.5 vi:14–1.6 i:7). El further puts dust on his head. In the Kirta epic, the eponymous king retires to his room, weeping, after the death of his entire family (CAT 1.14 i:26–35). It is not clear whether the ensuing sacrifice on the rooftops (1.14 ii:19–24) is related to the deaths (This conclusion is tempting in light of the collocation in Jeremiah 19:10–13 of rooftop sacrifice with the Tophet cult of human sacrifice) or is simply part of an effort to elicit a better fate from the gods. As for specifically royal funerary practices, the command to mourn over the throne and footstool of the dead king (CAT 1.161:13–14) suggests that a chair served as a placeholder for the deceased’s spirit, as in Mesopotamian and Hittite funerals ..."
Christopher B. Hays, Death in the Iron Age II and in First Isaiah (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 105.

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 II:18 and Jeremiah 19:13

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