Texts in Conversation
Job 10 uses the clay-shaping image known from El's creation of a healer in the Legend of Kirta to challenge his creator, asking why the one who made him would now destroy him.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.16 V:29
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
None among the gods an[swers him]. He says a sixth, a seventh time: "[Who] among the gods can remove the illness, driving out the disease?" None among the gods answers him. Then spoke the Kindly One, El Benignant: "Remain seated, my sons, upon your seat[s], upon yo[ur] thrones of princeship. I will apply sorcery and will surely bring about the removal of the illness, driving out the disease. With clay [his hand] he fills, with good clay [ ]. He moulds . . . . . . . [ ] . . . . [ ] dragon [ ] dragon [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] . . . . [ ] . . . . [ ] a cup [he takes in his hand] a flagon [in both his hands]: "Do, Sha['taqat ]
Job 10:9
Hebrew Bible
4 “Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human being sees? 5 Are your days like the days of a mortal, or your years like the years of a mortal, 6 that you must search out my iniquity and inquire about my sin, 7 although you know that I am not guilty, and that there is no one who can deliver out of your hand? 8 “Your hands have shaped me and made me, but now you destroy me completely. 9 Remember that you have made me as with the clay; will you return me to dust? 10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? 11 You clothed me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews. 12 You gave me life and favor, and your intervention watched over my spirit.
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Notes and References
“... One text (KTU 1.16.5.25–41) does mention how ʾIlu magically creates an
exorcist named Shaʿtiqatu by “pinching off clay” (rt + yqrṣ), an expression used
elsewhere of Enki’s and Yahweh’s creation of humanity.21 ...” “... The biblical references for this famous motif are Genesis 2:7 and Job 10:9; 33:6, with
Job 33:6 (qoraṣtî) using the same cognate verb as in KTU 1.16.5.29 (yqrṣ) and as in
the Akkadian phraseology of “pinching off” or “nipping” of the clay (karāṣu + ṭiddu/
ṭīdu) to make humans. For the numerous Akkadian texts, as well as how ʾIlu (like
Enki) also uses magic to create the exorcist Shaʿtiqatu, see Lewis 2013a, 2014a. ...”
Lewis, Theodore J.
The Origin and Character of God: Ancient Israelite Religion through the Lens of Divinity
(p. 77, 719) Oxford University Press, 2020
* 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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