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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Baal Cycle

KTU 1.4 VI

And Kothar-wa-Hasis responds:
You will revert, Baal, to my suggestion.
Kothar-wa-Hasis inquires again:
Please hear, Mightiest Baal:
Shall I not fit 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.
So that Pidray, Daughter of Light
Tallay, Daughter of Showers
The Beloved of El, Yamm, do not ... And spat ...
[…] insulted me and spat
And Kothar-wa-Hasis replies:
You will return, Baal, to my suggestion.
Swiftly, he builds his house
Quickly, he raises his palace.
He sends to Lebanon for its timber
To Siryon for its prime cedar.
Indeed to Lebanon for its timber
To Siryon for its choice cedar.
A fire is kindled in the house
A flame within the palace.
Behold! For one day, then two Fire blazes in the house
A flame within the palace.
For a third day, then a fourth
Fire burns in the house
A flame within the palace.
For a fifth day, then a sixth Fire blazes in the house
A flame within the palace.
Then, on the seventh day⁠
The fire departs the house
The flame, the palace.
The silver has transformed into plates
The gold into bricks. Mightiest Baal exults:
I have built my house of silver
My palace of gold.
Baal organizes for his dwelling
Haddu arranges for his palace.⁠
He slaughters large livestock and small:
He slaughters bulls and fatling rams
Year-old calves
Sheep in droves, and kids.
He invites his siblings into his house
His kin within his palace;
He invites the seventy sons of Athirat.⁠
He offers the gods rams
Offers the goddesses ewes.
He offers the gods bulls
Offers the goddesses cows.
He offers the gods thrones
Offers the goddesses seats.
He offers the gods jars of wine
Offers the goddesses cruets of wine.
As the gods dine, drink
A suckling of the breast is offered
With a salted knife, a cut of fatling.
They drink wine from goblets
From gold cups, the blood of trees.
[…]
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[…]
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Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.4 VI:46 and Numbers 11:16

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In the Baal Cycle, Baal hosts a feast for the “70 sons of Athirat,” a number linked with fullness. Numbers 11 follows this pattern when God appoints 70 elders to help Moses, using the number 70 to depict divine structure and authority in a community.

Passages

KTU 1.4 VI:46

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Baal organizes for his dwelling Haddu arranges for his palace. He slaughters large livestock and small: He slaughters bulls and fatling rams Year-old calves Sheep in droves, and kids. He invites his siblings into his house His kin within his palace; He invites the seventy sons of Athirat. He offers the gods rams Offers the goddesses ewes. He offers the gods bulls Offers the goddesses cows. He offers the gods thrones Offers the goddesses seats.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Numbers 11:16

Hebrew Bible
15 But if you are going to deal with me like this, then kill me immediately. If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble.” 16 The Lord said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take part of the Spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it all by yourself.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

References

"... Moses will be able to choose seventy elders who will assist him. Yahweh will take of the spirit that is on Moses – that is undoubtedly the spirit of Yahweh – and put it on these elders so as to share in carrying the burden of the people. The number seventy is well attested in the ancient Near East and should in many cases be considered symbolic. It can be used of a family group, including the “seventy sons of Athirat” in the Ugaritic pantheon, seventy “brothers” of Barrakab king of Yaudi (located in northern Syria) in the eighth century BCE who were murdered, the seventy descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt (Genesis 46:7; Exodus 1:5), of Jerubbaal and his seventy sons (Judges 9:5), and on other occasions (Judges 1:7; 2 Kings 10:6). The leading members of Emar (late second millennium BCE) are referred to as “the seventy sons of Emar”. The number seventy, if not the institution of elders described here, also survived in the seventy-member Sanhedrin, which was the supreme political, religious and legal body at the time of Jesus ..."
Pekka Pitkänen, A Commentary on Numbers: Narrative, Ritual, and Colonialism, Routledge Studies in the Biblical World (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018), 109.

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 VI:46 and Numbers 11:16

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