Texts in Conversation
Exodus 34 shares El's title of compassion in the Baal Cycle in its description of God as merciful and gracious, showing how older language for divine care shaped Israel's account of God's character.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.6 I:49
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
At the feet of El she bowed and fell down, she paid him homage and honoured him. She lifted up her voice and cried: Let her rejoice now Athirat and her sons, the goddess and the band of her kinsmen! For dead is Valiant Baal, for perished is the Prince, Lord of the Earth! Aloud cried El to the Great Lady-who-tramples-Yamm Listen, O Great Lady-who-tramples-Yamm. Give the first of your sons; I shall make him king. And the Great Lady-who-tramples-Yamm replied Shall we not make king one who has knowledge and wit? And the Compassionate, El of mercy, replied LLet the finest of pigments be ground, let the people of Baal prepare unguents, the people of the the Son of Dagan crushed herbs. The Great Lady-who-tramples-Yamm replied: Indeed, let us make Athtar the Brilliant king Athtar the Brilliant shall rule!
Exodus 34:6
Hebrew Bible
5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Lord by name. 6 The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, 7 keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” 8 Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshiped 9 and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord go among us, for we are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
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Notes and References
“... El and Yahweh are rendered with a similar compassionate disposition toward
humanity. Like El, Yahweh is a father (Deuteronomy 32:6; Isaiah 63:16, 64:7;
Jeremiah 3:4, 19; 31:9; Malachi 1:6, 2:10; cf. Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1) with a
compassionate disposition, many times expressed as “merciful and gracious god,”
’e¯l-ra¯hfiuˆm weˇhfiannuˆn (Exodus 34:6; Jonah 4:2; Joel 2:13; Psalms 86:15; 103:8; 145:
8; Nehemiah 9:17). ...”
Smith, Mark S.
The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts
(p. 142) Oxford University Press, 2001
* 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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