Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 6 draws on the Baal Cycle's picture of a heavenly royal court, presenting the prophet's task as a commission from the divine king.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.2 I:20
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
Yamm sent messengers, Ruler Nahar an embassy. With great rejoicing they flew heavenwards their nostrils flaring. Depart, divine assistants, do not stay! Indeed, set your faces towards the convocation of the Council, towards the divine mountain. At the feet of El you shall fall you shall honour the convocation of the Council! Standing upright, you shall then speak, declaring your message. And you shall say to Bull your father El, declare to the convocation of the Council: Message of Yamm, your master, of your lord, Ruler Nahar: Give up the god whom you obey, the one whom you obey, Tempest! Give up Baal and his retinue, the Son of Dagan, whose gold I shall seize! The divine assistants depart; they do not delay. Then they set their faces towards the divine mountain, towards the convocation of the Council. Now the gods were sitting to eat, the sons of the Holy One to dine. Baal stood by El. Lo, the gods saw them,
Isaiah 6:8
Hebrew Bible
3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!” 4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 I said, “Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” 6 But then one of the seraphs flew toward me. In his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.” 8 I heard the voice of the Lord say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?” I answered, “Here I am, send me!”
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Notes and References
“... Although the Psalms largely consist of prayer and praise, they also contain classic
type-scenes attested in the Ugaritic texts. One well-known scene in both the Psalms and
the Ugaritic texts is the divine council. In KTU 1.2 I ( SAC 111–13), El presides over this
meeting of “the Assembly in council,” as it is called, when the messengers of the god
Sea arrive and demand that the council surrender the god Baal. El then makes his judg-
ment and decides to meet their demands. Th e Psalms contain rather dramatic exam-
ples of a divine assembly scene in Psalms 82 and 89 (esp. vv. 5–7; cf. 1 Kgs. 22:19; Isa. 6;
Dan. 7; cf. “the seat of the gods” in Ezek. 28:2). ...”
Smith, Mark S.
"Canaanite Backgrounds to the Psalms" in Brown, William P. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms
(p. 48) 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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