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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Baal Cycle

KTU 1.6 II

[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
passed, and [the] Maiden [Anat]
sought him. Like the heart of a cow
for her calf, like the heart of a ewe
for her lamb, so was the heart of Anat
after Baal. She seized Mot
by the hem of his garment, she gripped [him]
by the edge of his robe. She lifted up her voice and cried:
You, Mot, give me my brother!
And divine Mot answered: What
do you ask, Maiden Anat?
I myself went about and roamed every
mountain to the heart of the earth, every hill
to the heart of the fields. My appetite lacked
humans; my appetite lacked the multitudes
of the earth. I came to the pleasant land
of pasture, the lovely field of Shahlmmt.
I approached Valiant Baal;
I set him like a lamb in my mouth;
like a kid he was crushed in my jaws.
Shapshu, Lamp of the Gods, glowed hot;
the heavens grew weak at the hand of divine Mot.
A day, two days passed; from days
to months. The Maiden Anat sought him.
Like the heart of a cow for her calf, like the heart
of a ewe for her lamb, so was the heart
of Anat after Baal. She seized
divine Mot. With a sword
she split him; with a sieve she winnowed
him; in fire she burned him;
with millstones she ground him; in the field⁠
she sowed him. His flesh was eaten by⁠
birds; his portions were consumed by
fowl. Flesh cried out to flesh.

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.6 II:34 and Deuteronomy 9:21

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy 9 uses the sequence of actions applied to Mot in the Baal Cycle to describe the golden calf's destruction, turning a divine battle into a model for removing idols.

Passages

KTU 1.6 II:34

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
I approached Valiant Baal; I set him like a lamb in my mouth; like a kid he was crushed in my jaws. Shapshu, Lamp of the Gods, glowed hot; the heavens grew weak at the hand of divine Mot. A day, two days passed; from days to months. The Maiden Anat sought him. Like the heart of a cow for her calf, like the heart of a ewe for her lamb, so was the heart of Anat after Baal. She seized divine Mot. With a sword she split him; with a sieve she winnowed him; in fire she burned him; with millstones she ground him; in the field she sowed him. His flesh was eaten by birds; his portions were consumed by fowl. Flesh cried out to flesh.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Deuteronomy 9:21

Hebrew Bible
19 For I was terrified at the Lord’s intense anger that threatened to destroy you. But he listened to me this time as well. 20 The Lord was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him too. 21 As for your sinful thing that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain. 22 Moreover, you continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth Hattaavah. 23 And when he sent you from Kadesh Barnea and told you, “Go up and possess the land I have given you,” you rebelled against the Lord your God and would neither believe nor obey him. 24 You have been rebelling against him from the very first day I knew you!
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

References

“... Môt, having returned to life, recounts his suffering at the time of his killing. The first version (KTU 1.6 ii:30–36) reads as follows: tiẖd bn ilm mt bḥrb tbqʿnn, bẖtr tdrynn, bišt tšrpnn, brḥm tṭḥnn, bšd tdrʿnn, širh ltikl ʿṣrm ‘she seized Môt, son of Il, cleaved him with a sword, winnowed him with a sieve, burned him in fire, ground him with a millstone, scattered him in a field, his flesh the birds ate.” [...] The common images and identical verbs in the description of the destruction of Mot and that of destroying the golden calf are: takl, eat; lqḥ = ʾẖd, take; šrp, burn; ṭḥn, grind; and drʿ, scatter (in the sea), in one version, and being eaten by birds on the other. The Exodus version might have preserved the image of “being eaten” while the Deuteronomic version may have preserved the image of “being scattered in the sea.” It seems that both accounts, the Ugaritic about Môt and the biblical about the golden calf, are not to be taken literally, for their purpose is to describe total destruction without regard for the factual applicability of the actions involved (burning and grinding). ...”
Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1–11: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 5 (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 412.

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 1.6 II:34 and Deuteronomy 9:21

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