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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

About this book

Incantation against Snakebite

KTU 1.82

[…] Baal struck […] Tunnanu, and […] and poured out […]
[…] to the earth […]
[…] Baal, the arrows of Rashap […] his kidneys and his heart.⁠
[…] your mouth on the mountain, […] your mouth […] your teeth.
[…] and your lips […] to Mot […]
[…] the voice of Shapshu […] serpents […]
[…]
[And] he speaks […] take me […] take me.
[…] in the vineyards […]
[…] before me […] Baal […]
[…] Anat […] like […]
[…] dust […] your house he drives you out.
[…]
[…] your hand […]
[…]
[…] your eye […]
[…]
[…] daughters […] daughters […]
[…]
[…] in his hand […]
[…] open […]
[…] the orphan girl, the poor woman goes […]
[…] son of Htt, son of Htt […]
[…] like the poor woman goes, like […]
[The] window […] like […]
[…] palace […]
[…] to Horon […]
[…] voice […]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…] to the voice of the [Rephaim]
[…]
[…] good […]
[…] serpents, and turn back […]
[…] sister […]
[…] to your path […]
[…] the earth […] Baal.
[…] also to your assembly; Anat rises, Anat rises.
[…] your [assembly] he drives you out, […] your house he drives you out.
[…] daughters […] daughters […] the servant of Horon […]
[…] your eye […] the gods.
[…] and bones like bones […], like stones […]

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.82:3 and Job 5:7

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Job's image of rising sparks may preserve a name linked to Resheph, the archer god at Ugarit, giving human trouble the language of a dangerous divine power.

Passages

KTU 1.82:3

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
[…] Baal struck […] Tunnanu, and […] and poured out […] […] to the earth […] […] Baal, the arrows of Rashap […] his kidneys and his heart. […] your mouth on the mountain, […] your mouth […] your teeth. […] and your lips […] to Mot […] […] the voice of Shapshu […] serpents […] […] [And] he speaks […] take me […] take me. […] in the vineyards […] […] before me […] Baal […] […] Anat […] like […] […] dust […] your house he drives you out.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Job 5:7

Hebrew Bible
5 The hungry eat up his harvest, and take it even from behind the thorns, and the thirsty pant for their wealth. 6 For evil does not come up from the dust, nor does trouble spring up from the ground, 7 but people are born to trouble, as surely as the sparks fly upward. 8 “But as for me, I would seek God, and to God I would set forth my case. 9 He does great and unsearchable things, marvelous things without number; 10 he gives rain on the earth, and sends water on the fields; 11 he sets the lowly on high, that those who mourn are raised to safety. 12 He frustrates the plans of the crafty so that their hands cannot accomplish what they had planned. 13 He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the cunning is brought to a quick end.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

References

“... it is relevant to note that Resheph in Northwest Semitic mythology was a god of pestilence and, contrary to Mot, was thought to have children (to judge from Job 5:7). A pantheon list from Ugarit identifies Resheph with →Nergal, the Mesopotamian deity of pestilence and the underworld. Resheph is also associated with 'arrows' at Ugarit (KTU 1.82:3) and in Cyprus (KAI 32:3-4) which some take to refer to his role in bringing plagues (although S. IVRY construed the arrows as a sign of luck because of the practice of belomancy; cf. W. J. FULCO, The Canaanite God Rešep [New Haven 1976] 49-51; J. C. DE MOOR, UF 16 [1984] 239). Resheph's connection with plagues and pestilence is also found in Hab 3:5 (cf. Deut 32:24) where he forms part of Yahweh's chthonian entourage along with →Deber ('Pestilence'). Most noteworthy for the present discussion is the reference to 'the sons of Resheph' in Job 5:7. Historians of Israelite religion use Job 5:7 (and similarly the bĕkôr māwet material [see below]) to form one of two conclusions. They argue that the expression 'the sons of Resheph' refers either to (a) the children of Resheph (= minor deities) who, like their father, bring disease or (b) a transformed biblical idiom (emasculating Canaanite myth) for various forms of illness. But these are not mutually exclusive positions. A vivid mythology can still underlie figurative language. ...”
Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and and Pieter W. van der Horst, eds., Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 2nd extensively rev. ed. (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 333.

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 1.82:3 and Job 5:7

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