Letter of the Hittite King to Ammurapi

KTU 2.39

Message of the Sun.
To Ammurapi say:
With the Sun everything is very
well.
To the f[eet] of the [l]ord, the Sun,
[his] lo[rd], his [ser]vant […]
for he is [a servant], his treasured possession,⁠
and [his master] […]
and […] my lord shall not lack.
And [you], you surely [k]now:
now […] to the Sun, your lord,
[a ser]vant, his treasured possession, are you.⁠
Now […] the Sun, your lord,
you surely know it.
To me, the Sun, your lord,
for a year, two years, why have you not come?
And as for the tablet about food that
you sent to the Sun,
your lord: that food
in your land there is none,
the Sun […]
If I go […]
I have given […]
two […]
and […]
[…]
[…]
[…]
with […]
food […]
[…]
And the letter […] [to] me
[…]
wherever there is any, seek it out
and give it to me.

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 2.39:12 and Deuteronomy 14:2

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

Summary

The royal language of treasured possession in the Ugaritic letter KTU 2.39 makes Israel's holiness a matter of belonging to God, giving the rules in Deuteronomy 14 a basis in loyalty to their divine ruler.

Passages

KTU 2.39:12

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

Message of the Sun. To Ammurapi say: With the Sun everything is very well. To the f[eet] of the [l]ord, the Sun, [his] lo[rd], his [ser]vant […] for he is [a servant], his treasured possession, and [his master] […] and […] my lord shall not lack. And [you], you surely [k]now: now […] to the Sun, your lord, [a ser]vant, his treasured possession, are you. Now […] the Sun, your lord, you surely know it. To me, the Sun, your lord, for a year, two years, why have you not come? And as for the tablet about food that you sent to the Sun, your lord: that food in your land there is none, the Sun […] If I go […] I have given […] two […] and […] […] […] […] with […] food […] […] And the letter […] [to] me […] wherever there is any, seek it out and give it to me.

1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Deuteronomy 14:2

Hebrew Bible

1 You are children of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald for the sake of the dead. 2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. He has chosen you to be his people, prized above all others on the face of the earth. 3 You must not eat any forbidden thing. 4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the ibex, the gazelle, the deer, the wild goat, the antelope, the wild oryx, and the mountain sheep. 6 You may eat any animal that has hooves divided into two parts and that chews the cud. 7 However, you may not eat the following animals among those that chew the cud or those that have divided hooves: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger. (Although they chew the cud, they do not have divided hooves and are therefore ritually impure to you.)

750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

References

“... Yhwh has chosen Israel to be for Him a עם סגלה. The word סגלה occurs only eight times in the Old Testament, six of which refer to the people of Israel (Exod. 19:5; Deut. 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps. 135:4; Mal. 3:17). The other two texts make clear that the word denotes possessions. [...] In a metaphorical sense, סגלה, “personal, precious property”, is applied to the people of Israel. In Deut. 7:6, the element of personal property is evident from the words להיות לו (cf. Ps. 135:4, where לסגלתו and לו are paralleled). [...] The metaphorical meaning of סגלה also occurs in Ugarit and Mesopotamia. In Ugarit, the word sglt is used in a letter from the Hittite king to the king of Ugarit (ktu 2.39). The Hittite king, Suppiluliuma ii (1205–1175 b.c.), blames his vassal Ammurapi (1205–1175 b.c.) that he has not come to him for two years now, as was prescribed in earlier treaties, and that he has failed to fulfill certain obligations. [...] The lines that contain the word sglt, however, are fairly clear. 7 k . ʿ[bdm . ]sglth . hw 7 for he [the king of Ugarit] is a servant [of the Hittite king], his personal property 12 ʿb[d]m. sglth . at 12 a servant, his personal property you are ...”

Arie Versluis, The Command to Exterminate the Canaanites: Deuteronomy 7 (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 81–82.

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

Letter of the Hittite King to Ammurapi

KTU347 chapters

Compare KTU 2.39:12 and Deuteronomy 14:2

Summary

Passages

KTU 2.39:12

Deuteronomy 14:2

References

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