Texts in Conversation
In Genesis 35, Rachel's death uses the same departing-breath image as Aqhat's murder, showing how death could be pictured as something leaving the body.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.18 IV:36
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
Aqhat I will place you. Strike him twice on the head, three times above the ear. Pour out, like a slaughterer, his blood, as one slaughtering, onto his knees. Let go out, like a wind, his breath, like spittle, his spirit, like smoke from his nostrils. […] I will not let live.” She took Yatpan, the warrior of the Lady; she placed him like an eagle in her belt, like a hawk in her quiver. Aqhat, as he sat down to e[at], the son of Danel to dine, over him eagles soared, a flock of haw[ks] watched. [Among] the eagles Anat soared. Over [Aqhat] she placed him. He struck him twice [on the head], three times above the ear. He poured out, [like] a slaughterer, his blood, as one slaugh[tering, onto his knees]. Out went, like a wind, [his] breath, [like spittle] his spirit, like smoke from [his nostrils]. […]
Genesis 35:18
Hebrew Bible
13 Then God went up from the place where he spoke with him. 14 So Jacob set up a sacred stone pillar in the place where God spoke with him. He poured out a drink offering on it, and then he poured oil on it. 15 Jacob named the place where God spoke with him Bethel. 16 They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, Rachel went into labor—and her labor was hard. 17 When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you are having another son.” 18 With her dying breath, she named him Ben Oni. But his father called him Benjamin instead. 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 Jacob set up a marker over her grave; it is the Marker of Rachel’s Grave to this day.
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Notes and References
“... in Gen 35:18 has both prebiblical and post-
biblical parallels. In the Ugaritic account of the murder of Aqhat,
we find the expression ys\at/ts\i . . . npšh (CAT/KTU 1.18 IV), and it
is worth noting that the Ugaritic dictionaries seem completely at
ease with the meaning “soul” for npš.16 They render ts\i km rḥ npšh ...” “... as “may his soul go out like a breath”17 and ys\at km rḥ npš[h] as “es
entwich seine Seele wie ein Wind”18 quite unselfconsciously. The ...”
Steiner, Richard C.
Disembodied Souls: The Nefesh in Israel and Kindred Spirits in the Ancient Near East, with an Appendix on the Katumuwa Inscription
(pp. 71-72) Society of Biblical Literature, 2015
* 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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