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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Baal Cycle

KTU 1.2 I


[…]
You […]
Valiant Baal […]
your dominion […]
On your head, All-Driver […]
Ruler Nahar. [May he break] […]
your head, Athtart [Name of Baal], [your skull]
[…] you will fall […]
The Father of the Bright One (has) two wives...
Yamm sent messengers, Ruler Nahar an embassy.
With great rejoicing they flew heavenwards
their nostrils flaring. Depart, divine assistants, do not stay! Indeed, set your faces⁠
towards the convocation of the Council, towards the divine mountain. At the feet of El you shall fall
you shall honour the convocation of the Council! Standing upright, you shall then speak,
declaring your message. And you shall say to Bull your father El, declare to the convocation of the Council:
Message of Yamm, your master, of your lord, Ruler Nahar:
Give up the god whom you obey, the one whom you obey, Tempest! Give up Baal and his retinue,
the Son of Dagan, whose gold I shall seize! The divine assistants depart; they do not delay. Then they set their faces towards the divine mountain,
towards the convocation of the Council. Now the gods were sitting to eat,⁠
the sons of the Holy One to dine. Baal stood by El. Lo, the gods saw them,
they saw the messengers of Yamm, the embassy of Ruler Nahar.
The gods lowered their heads onto their knees, and onto the thrones of their princeships.
Baal rebuked them: Why, O gods, have you lowered your heads onto your knees,
and onto the thrones of your princeships? I see, gods,
that the tablets of Yamm's messengers, of the embassy of Ruler Nahar, are humiliating (you).
Lift up, O gods, your heads from on your knees,⁠ from the thrones of your princeships,
and I shall answer the messengers of Yamm, the embassy of Ruler Nahar.
The gods raise their heads from on their knees, from the thrones of their princeships.
Afterwards the messengers of Yamm arrive, the embassy of Ruler Nahar. At the feet of El
they do not fall, they do not honour the convocation of the Council. Standing upright, they speak,
[declaring] their message. Like a fire, two fires, they appear; a whetted sword
[is their tongue]. They say to Bull his father El: Message of Yamm, your master,
[of your lord], Ruler Nahar: Give up the god whom you obey, the one whom you obey,
[Tempest]! Give up Baal and his retinue, the Son of Dagan, whose gold I shall seize!
[And] Bull his father El [answers]: Baal is your servant, O Yamm, Baal is your servant,
[O Nahar], the Son of Dagan is your prisoner. He will bring you tribute like the gods,
[…] he will bring you gifts like the sons of the Holy One. Then Prince Baal was enraged.
[He seizes] a knife in his hand, in his right hand a weapon to strike the divine assistants. He lunges
[…] Anat seizes; his left hand Athtart seizes. How [can you strike]
[…] [the embassy] of Ruler Nahar […]
[…] a messenger; between his shoulders is the word of his master, and […]
[…] Then Prince Baal was enraged […]
[…] the messengers of Yamm, the embassy of Ruler [Nahar] […]
[…] I say to Yamm, your master, [your lord], [Ruler]
[Nahar] […] hear the word […]
[…]

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.2 I:20 and Jeremiah 23:18

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Jeremiah 23 uses the heavenly court known from the Baal Cycle to distinguish an authorized prophet from someone speaking without God's approval.

Passages

KTU 1.2 I:20

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Yamm sent messengers, Ruler Nahar an embassy. With great rejoicing they flew heavenwards their nostrils flaring. Depart, divine assistants, do not stay! Indeed, set your faces towards the convocation of the Council, towards the divine mountain. At the feet of El you shall fall you shall honour the convocation of the Council! Standing upright, you shall then speak, declaring your message. And you shall say to Bull your father El, declare to the convocation of the Council: Message of Yamm, your master, of your lord, Ruler Nahar: Give up the god whom you obey, the one whom you obey, Tempest! Give up Baal and his retinue, the Son of Dagan, whose gold I shall seize! The divine assistants depart; they do not delay. Then they set their faces towards the divine mountain, towards the convocation of the Council. Now the gods were sitting to eat, the sons of the Holy One to dine. Baal stood by El. Lo, the gods saw them,
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Jeremiah 23:18

Hebrew Bible
18 Yet which of them has ever stood in the Lord’s inner circle so they could see and hear what he has to say? Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said? 19 But just watch! The wrath of the Lord will come like a storm! Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked. 20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. In future days you people will come to understand this clearly. 21 I did not send those prophets, yet they were in a hurry to give their message. I did not tell them anything, yet they prophesied anyway. 22 But if they had stood in my inner circle, they would have proclaimed my message to my people. They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways and stop doing the evil things they are doing.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jeremiah

References

“... At some point, a number of Israelite traditions identified El with Yahweh or presupposed this equation. The Hebrew Bible rarely distinguishes between El and Yahweh or offers polemics against El. West Semitic El lies behind the god of the patriarchs in Genesis 33:20 and 46:3 (and possibly elsewhere). Later tradition clearly intended that this god be identified as Yahweh. For example, the priestly theological treatment of Israel’s early religious history in Exodus 6:2–3 identifies the old god El Shadday with Yahweh: And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as El Shadday, but by my name Yahweh I did not make myself known to them.” This passage shows that Yahweh was unknown to the patriarchs. Rather, they are depicted as worshippers of El. In Israel El’s characteristics and epithets became part of the repertoire of descriptions of Yahweh. Like El in the Ugaritic texts, Yahweh is described as an aged, patriarchal god (Psalm 102:28; Job 36:26; Isaiah 40:28; cf. Psalm 90:10; Isaiah 57:15; Habakkuk 3:6; Daniel 6:26; 2 Esdras 8:20; Tobit 13:6, 10; Ben Sira 18:30), enthroned amidst the assembly of divine beings (1 Kings 22: 19; Isaiah 6:1–8; cf. Psalms 29:1–2, 82:1, 89:5–8; Isaiah 14:13; Jeremiah 23:18, 22; Zechariah 3; Daniel 3:25). ...”
Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 141.

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 1.2 I:20 and Jeremiah 23:18

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