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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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Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.4 VI:8 and Ezekiel 41:4

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In the Baal Cycle, the craftsman god Kothar builds Baal a palace, but Baal insists it have no windows so no intruder can enter. Ezekiel’s temple similarly seals its inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place, as a windowless core no defilement can breach.

Passages

KTU 1.4 VI:8

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

Ezekiel 41:4

Hebrew Bible
2 The width of the entrance was 17½ feet, and the sides of the entrance were 8¾ feet on each side. He measured the length of the outer sanctuary as 70 feet and its width as 35 feet. 3 Then he went into the inner sanctuary and measured the jambs of the entrance as 3½ feet, the entrance as 10½ feet, and the width of the entrance as 12¼ feet. 4 Then he measured its length as 35 feet and its width as 35 feet, before the outer sanctuary. He said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place.” 5 Then he measured the wall of the temple as 10½ feet and the width of the side chambers as 7 feet, all around the temple.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

References

... Clearly, then, the inner sanctum was windowless and sealed, it remained, as in 1 Kings 8:12, a realm of thick darkness. One cannot help but compare Baal’s windowless palace in Ugaritic myth. There, Kothar-wa-Khasis builds Baal a palace, but Baal insists on no windows, no access for intruders. We have seen Ezekiel’s stress on a living God, the font of all life. Windows, however, are associated with death, which God abhors (Ezekiel 43:9). In Jeremiah 9:21 Death personified breaks into houses through the windows. ...
Stephen L. Cook, Ezekiel 38–48: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018), 158.

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:8 and Ezekiel 41:4

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