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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:25 and Malachi 3:10

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

The promise in Malachi 3 of rain through heaven's windows shares the image of a window in Baal's palace in the Baal Cycle, linking support for the temple to the crops that sustain its people.

Passages

KTU 1.4 VII:25

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

Malachi 3:10

Hebrew Bible
8 Can a person rob God? You are indeed robbing me, but you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and contributions! 9 You are bound for judgment because you are robbing me—this whole nation is guilty. 10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out blessing for you until there is no room for it all. 11 Then I will stop the plague from ruining your crops, and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “All nations will call you blessed, for you indeed will live in a delightful land,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Malachi

References

“... The mountainous temple home from which Baal utters his voice and rains lavishly upon the earth (KTU 1.4 V-VII) appears not only in descriptions of Yahweh roaring from Zion (Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2) or giving forth rains (Isa. 30:19; Jer. 3:3; 5:24; 10:13; 14:4; 51:16; Amos 4:7) but also in postexilic discussions of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. The tradition of the temple home that guarantees the life-giving rains underlies the relationship between tithe and temple in Malachi 3:10. This passage reflects the notion that payment of the tithe to the temple would induce Yahweh to open the windows of heaven and pour down crop-producing rains. Similarly, Haggai 1:7-11 attributes drought and scarcity to the failure to rebuild the temple. Yahweh’s role as the divine source of rain appears elsewhere in postexilic prophecy (Zech. 10:1). Joel 4 (E 3) presents various aspects of the mountain tradition. It is the divine home (4:17 [E 3:17]), the location of Yahweh’s roar (4:16 [E 3:16]), the site of divine battle (4:9-15 [E 3:9-15]) with heavenly hosts (4:11-13 [E 3:11-13]; cf. 2:1-11), and the origin of the divine rains issuing in terrestrial fertility (4:18 [E 3:18]). ...”
Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel, 2nd ed., The Biblical Resource Series (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), PDF 105–106.

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:25 and Malachi 3:10

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