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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Baal Cycle

KTU 1.5 I

Though you struck Litan the wriggling serpent,⁠
finished off the writhing serpent,⁠
Encircler-with-seven-heads,⁠
the skies will be hot, they will shine
when I tear you in pieces: I shall devour you,
elbows, blood and forearms;
You will indeed go down into the throat of divine Mot (death),⁠
into the maw of the Beloved of El, the hero.
The gods departed and did not stay. Then they set their faces
towards the lord of the heights of Sapan,
and Gupan and Ugar said:
Message of divine Mot (death),
word of the Beloved of El, the hero:
My appetite is the appetite of the lion in the wasteland⁠
as the desire of the shark is in the sea;
as wild bulls yearn for pools, or the hind longs for the spring.
Look, in truth does my throat devour clay
and with both my hands I devour them.
My seven portions are on the plate,
and Nahar has mixed my cup.
For Baal did not invite me with my brothers,
nor did Haddu summon me with my kinsmen,
but he ate food with my brothers,
and drank wine with my kinsmen!
But you forget, Baal, that I can indeed pierce you,
Though you struck Litan the wriggling serpent,
finished off the writhing serpent,
Encircler-with-seven-heads, the heavens will be hot, they will shine
when I tear you in pieces, I shall devour you, thighs, blood and forearms; you will indeed go down into the throat of divine Mot (death), into the maw of the Beloved of El, the hero.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.5 I:31 and Isaiah 5:14

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Isaiah describes Death as a deity who opens its mouth to swallow people, an image that is taken from the Ugaritic Baal Cycle where Mot, the god of death, swallows Baal by opening his mouth to completely engulf him.

Passages

KTU 1.5 I:31

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Though you struck Litan the wriggling serpent, finished off the writhing serpent, Encircler-with-seven-heads, the heavens will be hot, they will shine when I tear you in pieces, I shall devour you, thighs, blood and forearms; you will indeed go down into the throat of divine Mot (death), into the maw of the Beloved of El, the hero.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Isaiah 5:14

Hebrew Bible
13 Therefore my people will be deported because of their lack of understanding. Their leaders will have nothing to eat, their masses will have nothing to drink. 14 So Death will open up its throat, and open wide its mouth; Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it, including those who revel and celebrate within her. 15 Men will be humiliated, they will be brought low; the proud will be brought low.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

References

"... The Isaiah Apocalypse, apart from the divine garden, clearly celebrates God’s kingship in 24:21–23 and 25:6–8. These two passages, now separated by a psalm of praise (25:1–5), are closely related. Both passages recount events that take place on Mount Zion, events that demonstrate YHWH’s kingship. In fact, YHWH is explicitly hailed as king in 24:23bα: “King is YHWH of hosts / On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem.” Furthermore, he is depicted as exercising, celebrating, and affirming his kingly authority in the passage. In the first half of the vision (24:21–22), YHWH judges the heavenly hosts and the earthly kings, demonstrating his authority over the entire cosmos. In the second half (25:6–8), he prepares an eschatological feast for all the peoples. As we mentioned in the preceding text, feasts celebrate and inaugurate kingship. During this feast, God also swallows Death, the paradigmatic swallower of life (25:8a). (For depictions of “death” as a swallower, in the Hebrew Bible, see Numbers 16:30; Isaiah 5:14; Habakkuk 2:5; Proverbs 1:12; etc. In the Baal Cycle, see KTU 1.4 VIII 14–20; 1.5 I 6–8, 14–19; II 2–6. For a fuller discussion, see Paul Kang-Kul Cho and Janling Fu, “Death and Feasting in the Isaiah Apocalypse (Isaiah 25:6–8),” in Formation and Intertextuality in Isaiah 24–27) In sum, Zion is the site of God’s royal garden and the seat of his eschatological kingship where justice is meted out against his heavenly, earthly, and infernal foes and where feasting occurs in celebration and confirmation of his eternal kingship ..."
Paul K.-K. Cho, Myth, History, and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 188.

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 1.5 I:31 and Isaiah 5:14

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