KTU I.3

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East

Watch! Anat sees the gods. Below, her feet start shaking. All around, her limbs are shivering. Up above, her face sweats. Shudders wrack the bones of every limb; the bones within her spine turn weak. She spoke up and cried out, “Why have Gupan and Ugar come here? What enemy rises up against Baal? What rival faces the Cloud-Rider? Didn’t I crush El’s beloved, Yam (Ocean)? Didn’t I annihilate Nahar (River), the great god? Didn’t I leash Dragon and bind him in a saddle? I crushed the Sinuous Serpent, Encircler, the seven-headed monster. I crushed the gods’ beloved, Arsha. I ravaged El’s young bull, Ataka. I crushed the gods’ she-wolf, Fire. I annihilated El’s daughter, Zabiba. I’ve reaped silver from my fighting; I’ve taken possession of gold.”

Job 26:12

Hebrew Bible

10 He marks out the horizon on the surface of the waters as a boundary between light and darkness. 11 The pillars of the heavens tremble and are amazed at his rebuke. 12 By his power he stills the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab the great sea monster to pieces. 13 By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. 14 Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! How faint is the whisper we hear of him! But who can understand the thunder of his power?”

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 Notes and References

"... We may notice another creature parallel to Leviathan, the monster Rahab, an otherwise unknown primordial being ... From the aforementioned texts concerning Leviathan the most that might be concluded is that Leviathan represents a west-Semitic counterpart of Tiamat, the personified chaos of the Babylonians. It is possible, however, that several versions of those cosmogonic myths existed and that the mytholographers made use of them with considerable freedom ..."

Stadelmann, Luis I. J. The Hebrew Conception of the World: A Philological and Literary Study (p. 21) Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1970

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