“... Psalm 29 is highly marked by Canaanite features. The Canaanite Background of Psalm 29 In the preceding section, the hymnic motif of praising the divine name was discussed for the Ugaritic texts and the Psalter, including Psalm 29:2. Of all the Psalms, Psalm 29 shows a strong Canaanite background (Handy 2009; especially Pardee 2009: 115–25). Th e psalm opens with a call on “heavenly beings” (v. 1) to praise Yahweh. Th ese desig- nate the deities in divine council in Ugaritic (e.g., KTU 1.4 II 14, SAC 128: “the gods”; see also KTU 1.17 VI 29, SAC 41: “the sons of El”). Psalm 29 then depicts Yahweh as a warrior god in a storm moving from west to east. Th e divine “voice” thunders over the waters, evidently with the Mediterranean Sea in view (vv. 3–4). Th e picture here recalls Baal’s theophanic “voice” issued against his enemies (KTU 1.4 VII 25–37, SAC 137) as well as his victory over the god Sea (KTU 1.2 IV, SAC 114–15). Th en the divine “voice” breaks the cedars of Lebanon (v. 5) and strikes the mountains of the Lebanon and Siryan (in v. 6). Lebanon and Siryan appear here in poetic parallelism (as in Ugaritic): He [the Lord] makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. Th e storm of Yahweh in Psalm 29 also creates lightning (“fl ames of fi re” in v. 7). Th en Yahweh’s storm-theophany “shakes the wilderness of Kadesh” (v. 8), a place with vir- tually the same name in Ugaritic (KTU 1.23.65:  SAC 165: “holy desert”). Even if these are two diff erent places with the same name, they point to a shared tradition. Th en Yahweh’s theophany is witnessed by people in “his temple” (v. 9). Th e psalm closes with Yahweh enthroned as king “over the fl ood” (v. 10) and with the wish that Yahweh will give strength and blessing to his people (v. 11). Psalm 29’s depiction of Yahweh as a storm-god, along with specifi c geographical references, suggests a Canaanite background. Th e Lebanon and Siryan mountain ranges named in both the Ugaritic Baal Cycle and Psalm 29 run roughly parallel to the Mediterranean coast of Phoenicia north of Israel. Dennis Pardee states: “Beyond the simple appropriation of one or two individual characteristics of Baal to Yahweh, how- ever, Psalm 29 seems to refl ect a familiarity with a signifi cant portion of the Baal story as it is known from the Ugaritic texts” (2009: 121; see also 2005: 153–81; 2012: 96–101). Some scholars, most notably H. L. Ginsberg, proposed that based on four Ugaritic parallels Psalm 29 originally was an adaptation of a Phoenician hymn (1938: 472–76). First, the best parallels for the warrior storm-god in Psalm 29 are not in the Bible but in various Canaanite sources or in Egyptian sources that can be shown to be infl uenced by Canaanite tradition. Second, the place-names in Psalm 29 favor a Phoenician setting. Th e combination of Lebanon and Siryan appears nowhere else in the Psalms (Siryan appears elsewhere only in Deut. 3:9). Th ird, the attestation of the so-called enclitic mem in v. 6 suggests “north Canaanite” grammar (although this feature would come to be recognized elsewhere in biblical poetry). Fourth, Yahweh’s enthronement in v. 10 is par- alleled by a passage that describes Baal’s enthronement on his throne (KTU 1.6 VI 33–35, SAC 152). Aloysius Fitzgerald attempted to strengthen Ginsberg’s proposal in noting that replacing the name of Yahweh with the name of Baal in Psalm 29 strongly increases its alliteration (1974: 61–63). While Ginsberg’s view was accepted for decades, it has been challenged. Pardee suggests that the psalm was not originally Canaanite but was composed by an Israelite author to counter the claims made about Baal by Canaanites. Whether the psalm was an Israelite adaptation of a Phoenician composition, in line with Ginsberg’s theory, or an Israelite composition drawing heavily on Canaanite tradition, pace Pardee, it is clear that Psalm 29 manifests a strong Canaanite background. ...”