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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Baal Cycle

KTU 1.4 V

A court, like Athirat's sons.
And Lady Athirat of the Sea responds:
You are great, El, so very wise;
The gray hair of your beard instructs you
Your soft beard down to your chest.
So now may Baal enrich with his rain⁠
May he enrich with abundant water in a downpour.
And may he give his voice in the clouds
May he flash lightning to the earth.
Is it a cedar house that he would complete
Or a brick house that he would construct
Let it be told to Mightiest Baal:
Invite a caravan into your house,
commodities amid your palace.
The mountains will bring you ample silver,
the hills, the finest gold;
the top-tier ore will be brought to you.
So build a house of silver and gold,
a house of pure stones, of lapis lazuli.
Young Anat rejoices; she stamps
her feet and leaves the ground.
Now she travels
to Baal on the heights of Sapan,
across a thousand fields, ten thousand hectares.
Young Anat laughs; she raises
her voice and cries out: Hear good news, Baal!
I bring you good news. There will be given
to you a house like your brothers, and a court
like your kin. Invite a caravan
into your house, commodities amid
your palace. The mountains will bring you
ample silver, the hills the finest
gold. So build a house of silver
and gold, a house of pure stones,
Mightiest Baal exults;
He invites a caravan into his home
Commodities amid his palace.
The mountains contribute ample silver
The hills, the finest gold;
The top-tier ore is brought to him.
He summons Kothar-wa-Hasis.
And turns to the passage in the text:
When the boys are dispatched.
Then Kothar-wa-Hasis arrives;
He places an ox before him
A fatling right in front of him. A throne is arranged, and he takes a seat
At the right hand of Mightiest Baal
As the gods dine and drink.
Mightiest Baal declares:
[…] [Kothar-wa-Hasis]
Hurry, the house, Kothar⁠
Quickly construct the palace.
You must promptly build the house
You must swiftly construct the palace⁠
On the peak of Sapan.
Let the house span a thousand fields
The palace, ten thousand hectares.
And Kothar-wa-Hasis replies:
Listen, Mightiest Baal
Comprehend, Cloudrider:
Shall I not fix a window in the house⁠
A vent in the midst of the palace?
And Mightiest Baal retorts:
You shall not install a window in the house
A vent in the midst of the palace.

Texts in conversation

How Psalm 48 Echoes Baal's Mount Zaphon

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In the Baal Cycle, the storm god Baal builds his palace on Mount Sapan. Psalm 48 echoes this by calling Zion “Sapan,” reusing familiar mountain imagery to describe Israel’s God as the divine king living on a mountain.

Passages

KTU 1.4 V:54

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
A fatling right in front of him. A throne is arranged, and he takes a seat At the right hand of Mightiest Baal As the gods dine and drink. Mightiest Baal declares: […] [Kothar-wa-Hasis] Hurry, the house, Kothar Quickly construct the palace. You must promptly build the house You must swiftly construct the palace On the peak of Sapan. Let the house span a thousand fields The palace, ten thousand hectares.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Psalm 48:2

Hebrew Bible
1 A song, a psalm by the Korahites. The Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise in the city of our God, his holy hill. 2 It is lofty and pleasing to look at, a source of joy to the whole earth. Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; it is the city of the great king. 3 God is in its fortresses; he reveals himself as its defender. 4 For look, the kings assemble; they advance together.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... This is the name of Baal's holy mountain. Other deities such as Anat have their own sanctuary-mountains. High places may have represented the meeting point between the heavens, the realm of the deities, and earth, the realm of humans. (The building of temples on the highest point, the acropolis, of a place evidently drew on this idea) As with Baal and Anat, Yahweh's home on earth is located on a "holy mountain" (Exodus 15:13, 17-18). In one biblical passage (Psalm 48:2-3), the name of Baal's mountain, Sapan, is incorporated into the description of Yahweh's mountainous home. See also Isaiah 14:13 for a different usage of Sapan in biblical tradition ..."
Mark S. Smith and Simon B. Parker, Ugaritic Narrative Poetry, WAW 9 (Atlanta: Scholars, 1997), 165.

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 1.4 V:54 and Psalm 48:2

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