Texts in Conversation
Psalm 92 reuses the Baal Cycle's repeated announcement of a god's defeated enemies, changing a victory over Sea into a promise that evildoers will perish.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.2 IV:8
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
From his mouth his speech barely went forth, from his lips his word, and he gave forth his voice in groaning beneath the throne of Prince Yamm. And Kothar-wa-Hasis spoke: Indeed I say to you, O Prince Baal, I repeat, O Charioteer of the Clouds, now your foe, Baal, now your foe you must smite; now you must destroy your adversary. Take your everlasting kingdom, your eternal dominion. Kothar fashioned two maces, and he pronounced their names: You, your name is “Expeller”. Expeller, expel Yamm, expel Yamm from his throne, Nahar from the siege of his dominion! You must leap from the hand of Baal, like a falcon from his fingers. Strike the shoulders of Prince Yamm, the chest of Ruler Nahar! The mace leapt from the hand of Baal, like a falcon from his fingers.
Psalm 92:9
Hebrew Bible
6 The spiritually insensitive do not recognize this; the fool does not understand this. 7 When the wicked sprout up like grass, and all the evildoers glisten, it is so that they may be annihilated. 8 But you, O Lord, reign forever. 9 Indeed, look at your enemies, O Lord. Indeed, look at how your enemies perish. All the evildoers are scattered. 10 You exalt my horn like that of a wild ox. I am covered with fresh oil. 11 I gloat in triumph over those who tried to ambush me; I hear the defeated cries of the evil foes who attacked me. 12 The godly grow like a palm tree; they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Planted in the Lord’s house, they grow in the courts of our God. 14 They bear fruit even when they are old; they are filled with vitality and have many leaves.
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Notes and References
“... Th e Canaanite background of the Psalms may be recognized in their poetic style. 6 As
in biblical poetry, the chief formal characteristic of Canaanite verse is the use of par-
allelism, a characteristic not lost in translation. In parallelistic verse, a single idea is
expressed in units of two or three lines (a bicolon or a tricolon) by repetition, synonyms,
or sometimes antonyms, as seen in the following lines from the Ugaritic Baal Cycle
(KTU 1.2 IV 7–10; SAC 114):
Let me tell you, Prince Baal,
let me repeat, Rider on the Clouds:
Now, your enemy, Baal,
now you will kill your enemy,
now you will annihilate your foe.
You will take your eternal kingship,
your dominion forever and ever.
Th ese units consist of a tricolon framed by two bicola; each unit has one thought devel-
oped by repetitive and synonymous parallelism. Not only the lines’ poetic technique but
also their content are familiar from the Psalms:
For your enemies, O LORD,
for your enemies shall perish,
all evildoers shall be scattered.
(92:10[9] )
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
(145:13)
As these two verses suggest, parallelism is broadly shared by the poetry of the Ugaritic
texts and the Psalms. In addition, the Psalms bear the freight of old traditional motifs that
are also at home in Ugaritic literature: divine victory over enemies and divine king ship.
In the case of Psalm 92: [10] 9, this traditional image has been applied to “evil-doers” and
not simply to enemy combatants. ...”
Smith, Mark S.
"Canaanite Backgrounds to the Psalms" in Brown, William P. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms
(p. 45) 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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