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Judges names the deliverer Shamgar ‘son of Anath,’ the title of the Canaanite war goddess. The Ugaritic Baal cycle shows that same Anath wading through the blood of slain soldiers, an Israelite hero bearing a foreign deity’s name.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.3 II:5
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
scent of coriander and murex. Anat did close the gates of the mansion, and she met the pages at the foot of the rock. And behold! Anat fought in the vale, battled between the two cities, smote the people, silenced the men of the sun-rise. Heads were like balls beneath her, palms above her like locusts, palms of warriors like avenging grasshoppers. She did stick the heads on her waist, did bind the palms to her sash. She plunged her knees in the blood of the guards, her skirts in the gore of the warriors. With her shafts she drove forth the old men, with her bowstring the townspeople.
Judges 3:31
Hebrew Bible
28 He said to them, “Follow me, for the Lord is about to defeat your enemies, the Moabites!” They followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan River opposite Moab, and did not let anyone cross. 29 That day they killed about 10,000 Moabites—all strong, capable warriors; not one escaped. 30 Israel humiliated Moab that day, and the land had rest for 80 years. 31 After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath. He killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad. So he also delivered Israel.
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Notes and References
... The title 'son of Anath' may identify Shamgar as a member of a special warrior class and/or as a disciple of the goddess Anath (compare 5:6). The phrase is also attested on inscribed bronze arrowheads from the Iron I period (including one from southern Palestine, El Khadr near Bethlehem). Anath is the adolescent sister of Baal who is closely associated with warfare and hunting in Ugaritic texts. While it is a little disturbing that the only divine name mentioned in the Shamgar account is Anath, Shamgar is nonetheless noted by the narrator as an agent of (YHWH's) deliverance for Israel. ...
Way, Kenneth C.
The Meaning of the Minor Judges: Understanding the Bible's Shortest Stories
(p. 278) Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 2018
* 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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