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Amos condemns ceremonial banquets where revelers sprawl on couches, drinking wine. The Ugaritic text KTU 1.114 describes the same marzeah ritual where the gods drink wine to intoxication.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.114
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
In his house El gave a feast of game, the produce of the hunt in the midst of his palace. He cried: To the carving, gods! Eat, O gods, and drink! Drink wine until satiety, foaming wine until intoxication! Yarih arched his back like a dog; he gathered up crumbs beneath the tables. Any god who recognized him threw him meat from the joint.
Date: 2300 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Amos 6:7
Hebrew Bible
6 They drink wine from sacrificial bowls and pour the very best oils on themselves. Yet they are not concerned over the ruin of Joseph. 7 Therefore they will now be the first to go into exile, and the religious banquets where they sprawl on couches will end. 8 The Sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is speaking:“I despise Jacob’s arrogance; I hate their fortresses. I will hand over to their enemies the city of Samaria and everything in it.”
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Notes and References
"... Another funerary repast thought to have figured at times in the cult of deceased kings (as well as commoners) is the rite associated with the institution known from the Bible as the marze’ach (Jeremiah 16:5; Amos 6:7). It too may be attested as early as the texts from third millennium Ebla. In the second millennium it is attested at Ugarit, in the first in Israel and Judah, and in the ‘Israelian’ colony at Elephantine in Egypt. At the turn of the millennium it is known from Phoenician and Punic settlements in the Piraeus near Athens and at Marseilles, and in Nabataean settlements at Petra in Jordan and Avdat in the Negev. Thereafter, it is frequently found in Palmyrene inscriptions, on the Madeba map, and in Rabbinic literature. ..."
Hallo, William W.
Origins: The Ancient Near Eastern Background of Some Modern Western Institutions
(p. 209) E.J. Brill, 1996
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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