The Baal Cycle
Ancient Near East
Baal organizes for his dwelling Hadd arranges for his palace. He slaughters large livestock and small: He slaughters bulls and fatling rams Year-old calves Sheep in droves, and kids. He invites his siblings into his house His kin within his palace; He invites the seventy sons of Athirat. He offers the gods rams Offers the goddesses ewes. He offers the gods bulls Offers the goddesses cows. He offers the gods thrones Offers the goddesses seats.
Date: 1500 - 1300 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Deuteronomy 32:8
Hebrew Bible
7 Remember the ancient days; bear in mind the years of past generations. Ask your father and he will inform you, your elders, and they will tell you. 8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the heavenly assembly. 9 For the Lord’s allotment is his people, Jacob is his special possession.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
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Notes and References
"... In the Ugaritic text KTU 1.4 vi 46 the poet Ilimilku refers to the seventy sons of Athirat. This is the only reference so far appearing in Ugaritian tradition concerning the precise number of the gods. None of the extant pantheon lists remotely approaches seventy deities in number, and while considerable numbers of divine epithets have been isolated, we would be hard-pressed even to find seventy different divine persons. It seems likely that the number is rhetorical, and is intended to represent the idea of totality (10 × 7) ... The number seventy comes up again in a biblical context, but this time by implication only, in the famous crux in Deuteronomy 32. Since this appears to be concerned with the number of deities in a pantheon, in this case a set of divine world-rulers, it is not inappropriate to link it provisionally with the idiom of KTU 1.4 vi 46, or at any rate to suggest that the two idioms m y be conceptually associated, and that one may perhaps elucidate the other ..."
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