Texts in Conversation
Ezekiel's Daniel may be Danel from the Aqhat story, making a respected foreign figure part of the prophet's standard for righteous conduct.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.17 V:8
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
[…] […] I will bring a bow […] […] arrows. And lo, on the seventh day, then Danel, the man of healing, thereupon the hero, the devotee of Hrnm, rises and sits at the entrance of the gate, beneath the nobles who are on the threshing floor. He judges the case of the widow, he decides the cause of the orphan. When he lifts his eyes, he sees: at a thousand fields, ten thousand acres, the coming of Kothar; he looks, and he sees the striding of Hasis. He brings a bow; look, […] […] arrows. Then Danel, the man of healing, thereupon the hero, the devotee of Hrnm, calls aloud to his wife: “Listen, lady Danatay, prepare a lamb from the flock for the appetite of Kothar- wa-Hasis, for the hunger of Hayyin, skilled of hand. Feed, give drink to
Ezekiel 14:14
Hebrew Bible
12 The Lord’s message came to me: 13 “Son of man, suppose a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it, cut off its bread supply, cause famine to come on it, and kill both people and animals. 14 Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would save only their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord. 15 “Suppose I were to send wild animals through the land and kill its children, leaving it desolate, without travelers due to the wild animals. 16 Even if these three men were in it, as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, they could not save their own sons or daughters; they would save only their own lives, and the land would become desolate.
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Notes and References
“... Other traditional forms of prayer are embedded with Ugaritic literary texts, such
as requests for blessing, whether from a god (KTU 1.17 I 23–24; SAC 35; see also
KTU 1.108.18–27) or from another human being (KTU 1.19 IV 32–33, SAC 54; cf.
Gen. 48:15–16, 20). Divine blessing is likewise a staple of the Psalms (5:13[12]; 28:9;
29:11; 45:3[2]; 67:7–8[6–7]; 72:17; 107:38; 109:28; 115:12–13, 15; 128:5; 134:3; 147:13). The
lament genre in the Psalms, an extended form of prayer that includes a complaint
stating what the speaker lacks, can also be found embedded in the Ugaritic literary
contexts (see Pardee 2012: 107). In the Baal Cycle, for example, the god Baal laments
that he has no house like his brethren (KTU 1.3 IV 46–53, SAC 123; KTU 1.4 I 4–18,
SAC 126; KTU 1.4 IV 50-57, SAC 131), and Aqhat describes the lament of the hero
Danil that he has no son like his kin (KTU 1.17 I 16–22, SAC 35). Parenthetically, this
Danil is thought to be the Canaanite antecedent to the figure of Daniel mentioned
in Ezek. 14:14, 20 and 28:3 (and the namesake of Daniel in the biblical book named
after him). The children of King Kirta lament their father’s life-threatening illness
(KTU 1.16 I 12–23, SAC 87–88; KTU 1.16 II 33–49, SAC 89–90), an occasional source
of lament also in the Psalter (6:3[2]; 38:4[3], 6[5]; 41:4–5[3–4]). ...”
Smith, Mark S.
"Canaanite Backgrounds to the Psalms" in Brown, William P. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms
(p. 46) Oxford University Press, 2014
* 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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