Letter to the Sun, the Great King

KTU 2.23

And thus spoke the Sun,
the Great King, my lord: […]
[…] the embassy of his servant⁠
he sends to your lord […]
my embassy with him […]
the embassy of your servant, when it arrives,
the embassy of the Sun, the Great [King],
my [lord] […]
I know […] [the Sun], the Great King,
my [lord] […]
[…] [the Sun], the Great [King],
[…] [my lord].
And I […]
I ask [for life for the] Sun,
the [Great] King, [my lord]. Indeed
I [ask] for life of [soul]
before Baal of Sapan, my lord,
and length of days for my lord,
before Amun and before
the gods of Egypt, who guard
the soul of the Sun, the Great King,
my lord.
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
Also […]
the king […]
[…]
[…]

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 2.23:3 and 2 Chronicles 12:8

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

Summary

2 Chronicles 12 uses the political meaning of servant found in the Ugaritic letter KTU 2.23 to contrast loyalty to God with submission to a foreign king, making lost freedom a lesson about misplaced allegiance.

Passages

KTU 2.23:3

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

And thus spoke the Sun, the Great King, my lord: […] […] the embassy of his servant he sends to your lord […] my embassy with him […] the embassy of your servant, when it arrives, the embassy of the Sun, the Great [King], my [lord] […] I know […] [the Sun], the Great King, my [lord] […] […] [the Sun], the Great [King], […] [my lord]. And I […] I ask [for life for the] Sun, the [Great] King, [my lord]. Indeed I [ask] for life of [soul] before Baal of Sapan, my lord, and length of days for my lord, before Amun and before the gods of Egypt, who guard the soul of the Sun, the Great King, my lord.

1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

2 Chronicles 12:8

Hebrew Bible

7 When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the Lord’s message came to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them. I will deliver them soon. My anger will not be unleashed against Jerusalem through Shishak. 8 Yet they will become his subjects, so they can experience how serving me differs from serving the surrounding nations.” 9 King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace; he took everything, including the gold shields that Solomon had made. 10 King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned them to the officers of the royal guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. 11 Whenever the king visited the Lord’s temple, the royal guards carried them and then brought them back to the guardroom.

400–301 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Chronicles

References

“... 312Ug. 'bd is used in Ugarit to denote the vassal of the Great King (KTU 2.23:3; 2.39:6), like the Akkadian word ardu, "slave" (PRU IV:49, line 12). The use of עבדin this text is the typically political language for vassalage (cf. also 2 Kings 16:7; 17:3; 24:1; Ezra 9:10; 2 Chron. 12:8) and forms a parallel to the bringing of tribute; ...”

Raymond de Hoop, Genesis 49 in Its Literary and Historical Context, OtSt 39 (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 134.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Letter to the Sun, the Great King

KTU347 chapters

Compare KTU 2.23:3 and 2 Chronicles 12:8

Summary

Passages

KTU 2.23:3

2 Chronicles 12:8

References

Your feedback

Leave a comment

Glossary

Search the Library