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Haggai links rain and harvests to the rebuilding of God's temple, sharing the Baal Cycle's belief that the god's house sustains the land's fertility.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.4 V:6
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
And Lady Athirat of the Sea responds: You are great, El, so very wise; The gray hair of your beard instructs you Your soft beard down to your chest. So now may Baal enrich with his rain May he enrich with abundant water in a downpour. And may he give his voice in the clouds May he flash lightning to the earth. Is it a cedar house that he would complete Or a brick house that he would construct Let it be told to Mightiest Baal: Invite a caravan into your house, commodities amid your palace. The mountains will bring you ample silver, the hills, the finest gold; the top-tier ore will be brought to you. So build a house of silver and gold, a house of pure stones, of lapis lazuli.
Haggai 1:9
Hebrew Bible
7 Moreover, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has said: “Pay close attention to these things also. 8 Go up to the hill country and bring back timber to build the temple. Then I will be pleased and honored,” says the Lord. 9 “You expected a large harvest, but instead there was little. And when you would bring it home, I would blow it right away. Why?” asks the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Because my temple remains in ruins, thanks to each of you favoring his own house! 10 This is why the sky has held back its dew and the earth its produce. 11 Moreover, I have called for a drought that will affect the fields, the hill country, the grain, new wine, fresh olive oil, and everything that grows from the ground; it also will harm people, animals, and everything they produce.”
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Notes and References
“... The mountainous temple home from which Baal utters his voice and rains
lavishly upon the earth (KTU 1.4 V-VII) appears not only in descriptions of
Yahweh roaring from Zion (Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2) or giving forth rains (Isa.
30:19; Jer. 3:3; 5:24; 10:13; 14:4; 51:16; Amos 4:7) but also in postexilic
discussions of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. The tradition of the
temple home that guarantees the life-giving rains underlies the relationship
between tithe and temple in Malachi 3:10. This passage reflects the notion
that payment of the tithe to the temple would induce Yahweh to open the
windows of heaven and pour down crop-producing rains. Similarly, Haggai
1:7-11 attributes drought and scarcity to the failure to rebuild the temple.381
Yahweh’s role as the divine source of rain appears elsewhere in postexilic
prophecy (Zech. 10:1). Joel 4 (E 3) presents various aspects of the mountain
tradition. It is the divine home (4:17 [E 3:17]), the location of Yahweh’s roar
(4:16 [E 3:16]), the site of divine battle (4:9-15 [E 3:9-15]) with heavenly
hosts (4:11-13 [E 3:11-13]; cf. 2:1-11), and the origin of the divine rains
issuing in terrestrial fertility (4:18 [E 3:18]). ...”
Smith, Mark S.
The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel
(p. PDF 105–106) William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002
* 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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