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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Baal Cycle

KTU 1.4 VII

[…] lapis lazuli […]
[…] Mightiest Baal
[…] the Beloved of El,
Yamm […] on the crown of his head
[…]
[…] the gods on Sapan.
He journeys from city to city
He traverses from town to town.
Sixty-six cities he seizes
Seventy-seven towns.
Eighty Baal ... Ninety Baal ...
Baal takes his throne within the house.
And Mightiest Baal declares:
I will install, O Kothar, Son of Sea
Kothar, Son of the Confluence:
Let a window be opened in the house
A vent in the midst of the palace.
So let a gap in the clouds be opened⁠
According to the word of Kothar-wa-Hasis.
Kothar-wa-Hasis chuckles
He raises his voice and proclaims:
I truly told you, O Mightiest Baal:
You will return to my word.
He opens a window in the house⁠
A vent in the midst of the palace.
Baal opens a gap in the clouds
Baal releases his sacred voice.
Baal pronounces the matter of his lips
His sacred voice, the earth quakes⁠
The high places of the Earth tremble.⁠
[…]
Baal's enemies retreat to the woods
The haters of Haddu to the mountain sides.
And Mightiest Baal declares:
O Foes of Haddu, why do you tremble?
Why tremble, O Arms-bearers of the Warrior?
Baal surveys the East; Indeed, his hand trembles
With a cedar in his right hand.
So Baal is seated in his house:
Will either king or commoner
Establish a dominion land?
So I will send an emissary to Divine Mot
A messenger to El's Beloved, the Hero
That he may summon Mot with his voice
Instruct the Beloved with his insides.
I myself am the one who rules over the gods
Indeed ordains for gods and men
Who satisfies the multitudes of the Earth.
Baal loudly tells his lads:
Look, Gupan and Ugar
Sons of the Maiden, Kin of the Sea
Sons of ... Exalted First-Born
[…]
[…] [in] the clouds
[…] beneath
[…]
[…]

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.4 VII:19 and Micah 1:2

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Micah 1 shares the Baal Cycle's image of a heavenly palace, placing God's judgment of earthly wrongdoing under the authority of the divine ruler above.

Passages

KTU 1.4 VII:19

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Baal takes his throne within the house. And Mightiest Baal declares: I will install, O Kothar, Son of Sea Kothar, Son of the Confluence: Let a window be opened in the house A vent in the midst of the palace. So let a gap in the clouds be opened According to the word of Kothar-wa-Hasis. Kothar-wa-Hasis chuckles He raises his voice and proclaims: I truly told you, O Mightiest Baal: You will return to my word. He opens a window in the house A vent in the midst of the palace. Baal opens a gap in the clouds Baal releases his sacred voice.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Micah 1:2

Hebrew Bible
2 Listen, all you nations! Pay attention, all inhabitants of earth! The Sovereign Lord will act as a witness against you; the Lord will accuse you from his majestic palace. 3 Look, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling place! He will descend and march on the earth’s mountaintops! 4 The mountains will crumble beneath him, and the valleys will split apart like wax before a fire, like water dumped down a steep slope. 5 All this is because of Jacob’s rebellion and the sins of the nation of Israel. And just what is Jacob’s rebellion? Isn’t it Samaria’s doings? And what is Judah’s sin? Isn’t it Jerusalem’s doings? 6 “I will turn Samaria into a heap of ruins in an open field, into a place for planting vineyards. I will dump the rubble of her walls down into the valley and lay bare her foundations.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Micah

References

“... Because in the next verse God descends on the heights of the earth it is safe to assume that his holy dwelling is thought to be situated in heaven, like the palace of the Ugaritic god Baal which in reality was nothing but a golden mass of clouds on Mt Zaphon which Baal tears open to make a window (KTU 1.4:VII.19).89 According to the theophany description in Exodus 19:16-20 God descended on Mt ...”
Johannes C. de Moor, Historical Commentary on the Old Testament: Micah (Leuven: Peeters, 2020), 61.

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 VII:19 and Micah 1:2

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