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 Kings 17:3

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

Summary

In 2 Kings 17, Hoshea's service shares the political language of Ugaritic letters, showing that tribute expresses a king's submission and the loss of his country's independence.

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 Kings 17:3

Hebrew Bible

2 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not to the same degree as the Israelite kings who preceded him. 3 King Shalmaneser of Assyria marched up to attack him; so Hoshea became his subject and paid him tribute. 4 The king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was planning a revolt. Hoshea had sent messengers to King So of Egypt and had not sent his annual tribute to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested him and imprisoned him. 5 The king of Assyria marched through the whole land. He attacked Samaria and besieged it for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the people of Israel to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor (the river of Gozan), and in the cities of the Medes.

600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Kings

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 Kings 17:3

Summary

Passages

KTU 2.23:3

2 Kings 17:3

References

Your feedback

Leave a comment

Glossary

Search the Library