Texts in Conversation
Psalm 115 separates praise of Israel's God from the world of the dead, marking a break with the Ugaritic link between Baal and dead ancestors.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.22 I:8
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
[…] here is your son, here […] your son's son in your place; here the [hero] […] your hand; the little one will kiss your lips. There shoulder by shoulder are the brothers whom El raised up […]. There […] the name of El, the men […] the name of El, the heroes. There Tmq, the Rephaite of Baal, the soldier of Baal and the soldier of Anat. There Yhpn the mighty, the prince, the eternal king. When Anat goes hunting, […] the birds of the sky. Oxen are slaughtered, sheep as well; bulls are felled and fatted rams, year-old calves,
Psalm 115:17
Hebrew Bible
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their deliverer and protector. 10 O family of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their deliverer and protector. 11 You loyal followers of the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their deliverer and protector. 12 The Lord takes notice of us; he will bless—he will bless the family of Israel, he will bless the family of Aaron. 13 He will bless his loyal followers, both young and old. 14 May he increase your numbers, yours and your children’s. 15 May you be blessed by the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth. 16 The heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to mankind. 17 The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any of those who descend into the silence of death. 18 But we will praise the Lord now and forevermore. Praise the Lord!
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Notes and References
“... Second, the Psalms express an inner-Israelite religious innovation that constructed
the separation of Yahweh from Death and his underworld realm (Pss. 6:7[6] ; 88:13[12];
115:17; Lewis 1989: 170), in contrast to Baal’s association with revered ancestral spirits
(cf. “the Rephaim of Baal” in KTU 1.22 I 8, SAC 62). As a corollary, the Psalms show a
rejection of devotion to the dead as traditionally practiced in ancient Israel (see Psalm
16 discussed above), also seen in the Ugaritic texts (e.g., a royal version of such devotion
in KTU 1.161). Th e Psalms represent the Israelite deity as the God of the living and as the
living God (Feldmeier and Spieckermann 2011). ...”
Smith, Mark S.
"Canaanite Backgrounds to the Psalms" in Brown, William P. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms
(p. 53) 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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