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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Baal Cycle

KTU 1.3 III

She decorated herself with purple cloth, which takes a thousand fields
to harvest from the sea.
[…]
[You will see her] holding her lyre in her hands,
placing her lute to her breast: a song of the love of Exalted Baal,
of the passion of Pidray, daughter of Lightning,
of the affection of Tallay, daughter of Rain, of the love of Arsay, daughter of Netherworld.
Next, enter like a pair of acolytes,
and bow to the ground before Anat’s feet.
Prostrate yourselves; show her respect.
Then say to Maiden Anat —
repeat to the Kinswoman of the People:
“A message from Exalted Baal; words from the Exalted Warrior.
Come find battle in the land;
leave love in the dust.
Pour peace into the chasms of the land,
harmony into the chasms of the fields.
Hasten, hustle, hurry up!
“Let your feet run to me, let your legs race to me,
for I have thoughts to tell you,
and I have words to share:
a thought of trees and a murmur of stone,
a whisper between heaven and earth,
between the deep and the stars.
“I understand the lightning beyond the heavens’ ken,
the thoughts beyond human knowledge, that which the throngs below cannot understand.
Come, and I will show it:
deep inside my mountain, holy Sapan,
in the sacred space on my native peak,⁠
in the paradise upon the hill of victory.”⁠
Watch! Anat sees the gods. Below, her feet start shaking.
All around, her limbs are shivering.
Up above, her face sweats. Shudders wrack the bones of every limb;
the bones within her spine turn weak. She spoke up and cried out,
“Why have Gupan and Ugar come here?
What enemy rises up against Baal?⁠
What rival faces the Cloud-Rider?⁠ Didn’t I crush El’s beloved, Yamm (Ocean)?⁠
Didn’t I annihilate Nahar (River), the great god?⁠
Didn’t I leash Dragon and bind him in a saddle?⁠
I crushed the Sinuous Serpent, Encircler,⁠
the seven-headed monster.
I crushed the gods’ beloved, Arsha.
I ravaged El’s young bull, Ataka.
I crushed the gods’ she-wolf, Fire.
I annihilated El’s daughter, Zabiba. I’ve reaped silver from my fighting;
I’ve taken possession of gold of those who drove Baal from the heights of Sapan”

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.3 III:37 and Isaiah 19:1

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Isaiah 19 uses the Ugaritic title “Rider of the Clouds,” first used for Baal in the Baal Cycle. This title is later used for God throughout the Hebrew Bible, including Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah, where he is also described as riding on the clouds.

Passages

KTU 1.3 III:37

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
the bones within her spine turn weak. She spoke up and cried out, “Why have Gupan and Ugar come here? What enemy rises up against Baal? What rival faces the Cloud-Rider? Didn’t I crush El’s beloved, Yamm (Ocean)? Didn’t I annihilate Nahar (River), the great god? Didn’t I leash Dragon and bind him in a saddle? I crushed the Sinuous Serpent, Encircler, the seven-headed monster. I crushed the gods’ beloved, Arsha.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Isaiah 19:1

Hebrew Bible
1 This is an oracle about Egypt: Look, the Lord rides on a swift-moving cloud and approaches Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him; the Egyptians lose their courage. 2 “I will provoke civil strife in Egypt: brothers will fight with one another, as will neighbors, cities, and kingdoms. 3 The Egyptians will panic, and I will confuse their strategy. They will seek guidance from the idols and from the spirits of the dead, from the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, and from the magicians.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

References

“... In some cases, however, the portrayal of Yahweh includes some far more pointed references. Baal’s epithet rkb.‘rpt “rider of the clouds,” attested (so far) sixteen times at Ugarit, is found word-for-word [...] in Ps. 68.5 (Eng. 4), in similar forms in Psalm 104.3 [...] and in Isa. 19.1 [...]. Commentators have long seen this as a taking over of the standard description of the Canaan storm-god. [...] The depiction of Yahweh riding upon a cloud in Isaiah 19.1 is set in a chapter which begins with an oracle of Yahweh against Egypt and ends on a strikingly universalistic note. In the future, both the Egyptians and the Assyrians will worship Yahweh and be considered his people, anticipating the monotheistic concept of Yahweh’s universal rule. Hence, appropriation is clearly at work in this oracle against Egypt, which ascribes to Yahweh the exclusive control of the waters of the Nile (vv. 5–10). The focus of the appropriation is the host of Egyptian gods rather than Baal, even though Baal was equated with Seth in Egypt. Thus, Yahweh’s riding upon a cloud and his taking over of the waters of the Nile in Isaiah 19 are clues of an implied polemic, but directed against the Egyptian pantheon. ...”
James S. Anderson, Monotheism and Yahweh’s Appropriation of Baal, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 617 (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 86–88.

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 1.3 III:37 and Isaiah 19:1

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