Texts in Conversation
In Isaiah 44, the command for the deep to dry shares the Baal Cycle's defeat of Sea, making Jerusalem's rebuilding depend on God's power to remove obstacles.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.2 IV:31
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
like a falcon from his fingers. Strike the skull of Prince Yamm (Ocean), the brow of Ruler Nahar (River)! Let Yamm collapse in a heap, and let him fall to the ground!' Then the mace leapt from the hand of Baal, like a falcon from his fingers. It struck the skull of Prince Yamm, the brow of Ruler Nahar. Yamm collapsed in a heap; he fell to the ground. His joints trembled, and his visage was discomposed. Baal gathered Up and drank Prince Yamm to the dregs, he exterminated Ruler Nahar. By name Athtart chided him Dry him Up, O Valiant Baal! Dry him up, O Charioteer of the Clouds! For our captive is Prince [Yamm], [for] our captive is Ruler Nahar. And […] goes out […] Valiant Baal dries him up, and […] Yamm is surely dead! Baal shall [reign]
Isaiah 44:27
Hebrew Bible
24 This is what the Lord, your Protector, says, the one who formed you in the womb: “I am the Lord, who made everything, who alone stretched out the sky, who fashioned the earth all by myself, 25 who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers and humiliates the omen readers, who overturns the counsel of the wise men and makes their advice seem foolish, 26 who fulfills the oracles of his prophetic servants and brings to pass the announcements of his messengers, who says about Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited,’ and about the towns of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt, her ruins I will raise up,’ 27 who says to the deep sea, ‘Be dry! I will dry up your sea currents,’ 28 who commissions Cyrus, the one I appointed as shepherd to carry out all my wishes and to decree concerning Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and concerning the temple, ‘It will be reconstructed.’
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Notes and References
“... Many writers have noted the great frequency with which the combat myth
is described or alluded to in the Hebrew Bible.98 While it would be wrong to
claim that the biblical narratives derive immediately from the Ugaritic one,
it is unquestionable that they are joint heirs to one West Semitic strand of
the tradition. Both end up with the victor claiming a patrimony described
as his “inheritance”99 and they share many significant items of vocabulary,
as detailed →in Table 2 below.100 The real significance of these terms is not
just their usage across the divide between Ugaritic and Hebrew literature,
suggesting a cognate relationship (which spreads more widely across
diverse recensions of the tradition), but also their capacity, as key poetic
terms, to evoke the trope even when they are used in isolation, as in some
cases instanced here.101 These points of contact are too numerous to claim
that any similarity is superficial and inconsequential. They are evidently
organically linked. ...” “... b. ybṯ, ybš,
ḥrb, “dry
up”:103
KTU 1.2 iv
29 (ybṯ),
31 (ybṯ)
Isa 50:2 (ḥrb), Jer 51:36 (ḥrb), Nah 1:4 (ybš), Josh 2:10 (ybš) etc., Ps
74:15 (ybš), Isa 42:15 (ybš), 44:27 (ḥrb, ybš), Zech 10:11 (ybš), Exod
14:21 (ḥrb), Isa 44:27 (ḥrb). ...”
* 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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