Texts in Conversation
Hosea describes the people crediting Baal for grain, wine, and oil, the same gifts praised in the Legend of Kirta. The similarity suggests Hosea engages with Canaanite traditions to criticize trust in their storm and fertility god.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.16 III:13
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
To the earth Baal rained, and to the field rained 'Aliyy. Sweet to the earth was the r[ai]n of Baa[l], and to the field the rain of 'Aliyy. It was sweet to the wheat in the ploughland, in the tilth (to) the emmer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The ploughmen raise (their) head(s), upward the growers of corn. Spent is the breadcorn [from] their jars, spent the wine from their bottles, spent the oil from [their] j[ugs]. Kirta's house . . . . [ ]
Hosea 2:8
Hebrew Bible
7 Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch them; she will seek them, but she will not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband, because I was better off then than I am now.’ 8 “Yet until now she has refused to acknowledge that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and that it was I who lavished on her the silver and gold—that they used in worshiping Baal! 9 Therefore, I will take back my grain during the harvest time and my new wine when it ripens; I will take away my wool and my flax that I had provided in order to clothe her. 10 Soon I will expose her lewd nakedness in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to rescue her from me!
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Notes and References
"... what is said about Baal in Hosea corresponds precisely to what we know about the Ugaritic Baal. Hosea 2 makes clear that the people regarded this god as the source of fertility, Hosea 2:10 stating that they believed Baal to be responsible for ‘the grain, the wine, and the oil’, while in Hosea 2:7 the woman attributes to her lovers (the Baals) her bread, water, wool, flax, oil and drink, and Hosea 2:14 similarly ascribes to them vines and fig trees. All this agrees perfectly with what we know about Baal from the Ugaritic texts. For example, the Keret epic refers to the coming of Baal’s rain, ‘a delight to the fields…a delight to the wheat’ (KTU 1.16.III.6-7), as bringing joy to the farmers, faced with the failure of the bread, wine and oil (KTU 1.16.III.12-16), three of the very items associated with Baal in Hosea 2. Again, the Baal epic itself has many references to him as the one who brings the rain, on which the fertility of the land depends, the rain ceasing with his death and returning with his resurrection ..."
Day, John
"Hosea and the Baal Cult" in Day, John (ed.) Prophecy and Prophets in Ancient Israel: Proceedings of the Oxford Old Testament Seminar
(pp. 202-224) T&T Clark, 2010
* 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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