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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

Compare KTU 1.4 V:61 and Jeremiah 9:21

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In the Baal Cycle, the god Kothar puts a window in Baal’s palace, which Baal resists for fear the god of Death could enter. Jeremiah describes Death climbing through the windows into fortified houses, the same image of Death entering through an opening.

Passages

KTU 1.4 V:61

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
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.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Jeremiah 9:21

Hebrew Bible
20 I said, “So now, you wailing women, listen to the Lord’s message. Open your ears to the message from his mouth. Teach your daughters this mournful song, and let every woman teach her neighbor this lament. 21 ‘Death has climbed in through our windows. It has entered into our fortified houses. It has taken away our children who play in the streets. It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’ 22 Tell your daughters and neighbors, ‘The Lord says: “The dead bodies of people will lie scattered everywhere like manure scattered on a field. They will lie scattered on the ground like grain that has been cut down but has not been gathered.”’”
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jeremiah

References

... arguing that Baal’s concern about the window reflects his fear that his enemy, Mot, who becomes the god’s great antagonist in the last part of the cycle, will attack him by slipping into the palace through the window. The primary support for this explanation was found in the extraordinary biblical passage, Jeremiah 9:20, which appears to make allusion to an attack by Mot (Death) upon a fortress into which he enters through a window: "for Death has come up into our windows, he has entered our citadels." Cassuto saw this verse as a reminiscence of the story of Baal and Mot. This explanation of Baal’s reluctance was widely accepted by Ginsberg, Albright, Loewenstamm, and Petersen and Woodward, among others. ...
Mark S. Smith and Wayne T. Pitard, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle: Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU/CAT 1.3–1.4 (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 2:603.

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:61 and Jeremiah 9:21

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