"... This discussion of Baal holds considerable import for understanding biblical evidence about death and the underworld. The argument that the mythological presentation of Baal and the god of Death in the Baal Cycle is largely a literary one deriving some of its imagery from royal mortuary ritual should be consistent with biblical presentations of the chief deity of Israel and Death personified. Let me spell out this working hypothesis. Iron Age Israel shows clear evidence of the storm-battle imagery of Baal’s mythology. Indeed, biblical tradition shows a reliance on the particulars of Baal’s mythology. In this category may be placed biblical references to the cosmic enemies such as Leviathan, Sea, and Tannin. Moreover, Psalm 48:3 identifies Mount Sapan, Baal’s home in the Ugaritic texts, with Zion. Scholars generally accept the view that these details point to the continuity and modification of older traditions about Baal. In view of such shared specifics, one may ask why the Bible lacks a comparable mythology of the chief-god with respect to the underworld and the god of Death. Like the Baal Cycle, the Bible is replete with speculations about the nature of the underworld and the god of Death; perhaps the best-known biblical texts are Isaiah 28:15, 18; Jeremiah 9:20; Habakkuk 2:5; and Psalm 49. Unlike the Baal Cycle, the Bible contains few references to, much less any substantial mythology about, the conflict between the chief deity of Israel and the god of Death. Although the Bible does mention a divine victory over Death—though barely (Isaiah 25:8; compare Revelation 21:4) - there is no mythological presentation of this conflict. The absence of this conflict is all the more striking because of the Bible’s massive complex of storm-battle imagery shared with the Ugaritic texts. The disparity might be attributed to the idea that the god of Israel has nothing to do with the realm of Death. Yet this is only partially correct ..."