Rephaim

KTU 1.22 I

[…]
[…] here is your son, here […]
your son's son in your place; here the [hero] […]
your hand; the little one will kiss your lips. There
shoulder by shoulder are the brothers whom El raised up⁠
[…]. There […] the name of El, the men
[…] the name of El, the heroes.
There Tmq, the Rephaite of Baal, the soldier of Baal⁠
and the soldier of Anat. There Yhpn the mighty,
the prince, the eternal king. When
Anat goes hunting, […] the birds of the sky.
Oxen are slaughtered, sheep as well; bulls are felled
and fatted rams, year-old calves,
lambs, […] kids. Like silver
[…] olives, gold […]
[…] the table […]
[…] kings. For a day he pours wine of Tmk,
must, wine of rulers, wine of […]
[…] wine […]
of Lebanon, […] must that El has cultivated.
For a day and a second the Rephaim eat,
they drink; a third, a fourth day, a fifth,
a sixth day the Rephaim eat,
they drink in the house of eating on the heights,
[…] in the heart of Lebanon. Then on the seventh
day, then Mighty Baal
[…] his companion […]
[…]

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.22 I:8 and Psalm 88:12

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

Summary

The plea in Psalm 88 assumes a distance between God and the dead that contrasts with Baal's ties to dead ancestors in the Ugaritic Rephaim texts, making death a loss of access to divine help.

Passages

KTU 1.22 I:8

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

[…] here is your son, here […] your son's son in your place; here the [hero] […] your hand; the little one will kiss your lips. There shoulder by shoulder are the brothers whom El raised up […]. There […] the name of El, the men […] the name of El, the heroes. There Tmq, the Rephaite of Baal, the soldier of Baal and the soldier of Anat. There Yhpn the mighty, the prince, the eternal king. When Anat goes hunting, […] the birds of the sky. Oxen are slaughtered, sheep as well; bulls are felled and fatted rams, year-old calves,

1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Psalm 88:12

Hebrew Bible

9 My eyes grow weak because of oppression. I call out to you, O Lord, all day long; I spread out my hands in prayer to you. 10 Do you accomplish amazing things for the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and give you thanks? (Selah) 11 Is your loyal love proclaimed in the grave, or your faithfulness in the place of the dead? 12 Are your amazing deeds experienced in the dark region, or your deliverance in the land of oblivion? 13 As for me, I cry out to you, O Lord; in the morning my prayer confronts you. 14 O Lord, why do you reject me, and hide your face from me?²³ 15 I am oppressed and have been on the verge of death since my youth. I have been subjected to your horrors and am numb with pain. 16 Your anger overwhelms me; your terrors destroy me.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

“... Second, the Psalms express an inner-Israelite religious innovation that constructed the separation of Yahweh from Death and his underworld realm (Pss. 6:7[6] ; 88:13[12]; 115:17; Lewis 1989: 170), in contrast to Baal’s association with revered ancestral spirits (cf. “the Rephaim of Baal” in KTU 1.22 I 8, SAC 62). As a corollary, the Psalms show a rejection of devotion to the dead as traditionally practiced in ancient Israel (see Psalm 16 discussed above), also seen in the Ugaritic texts (e.g., a royal version of such devotion in KTU 1.161). Th e Psalms represent the Israelite deity as the God of the living and as the living God (Feldmeier and Spieckermann 2011). ...”

Mark S. Smith, “Canaanite Backgrounds to the Psalms,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms, ed. William P. Brown (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 53.

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

Rephaim

KTU347 chapters

Compare KTU 1.22 I:8 and Psalm 88:12

Summary

Passages

KTU 1.22 I:8

Psalm 88:12

References

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