Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature Author(s): John Day Source: Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 105, No. 3 (Sep., 1986), pp. 385-408 Published by: The Society of Biblical Literature Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3260509 . Accessed: 11/05/2013 22:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Society of Biblical Literature is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Biblical Literature. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 143.207.2.50 on Sat, 11 May 2013 22:44:00 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JBL 105/3 (1986) 385-408 ASHERAH IN THE HEBREW BIBLE AND NORTHWEST SEMITIC LITERATURE* JOHN DAY Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, England, OX2 6QA The late lamented Mitchell Dahood was noted for the use he made of the Ugaritic and other Northwest Semitic texts in the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. Although many of his views are open to question, it is indisputable that the Ugaritic and other Northwest Semitic texts have revolutionized our understanding of the Bible. One matter in which this is certainly the case is the subject of this paper, Asherah.' Until the discovery of the Ugaritic texts in 1929 and subsequent years it was common for scholars to deny the very existence of the goddess Asherah, whether in or outside the Bible, and many of those who did accept her existence wrongly equated her with Astarte. Since the discovery of the Ugaritic texts, however, no one can deny that there was a Canaanite goddess Asherah, independent of Astarte, and it is generally accepted that this same goddess appears a number of times in the OT-though even today there are still a few scholars who refuse to face the facts, as we shall see below. In treating the subject of Asherah I shall discuss first Asherah in Northwest Semitic literature and then Asherah in the Hebrew Bible. I. Asherah in Northwest Semitic Literature The earliest references to the goddess Asherah are alleged to be in the Ebla texts (ca. 2350 B.c.), where P. Matthiae claims that she appears as a "lesser but well-attested" deity,2 but it should be noted that she does not *This essay was the winning entry in the SBEs 1984 Mitchell Dahood Memorial Prize Competition in Biblical Hebrew and Northwest Semitic, and a shortened form of it was delivered at the SBEs annual meeting in Chicago on 10 December 1984. The author wishes to express his gratitude to the competition committee (Professors F. M. Cross, P. D. Miller, M. H. Pope; secretary, Professor D. N. Freedman) for making the award, as well as to Double- day & Co., who provided the subvention. M. J. Dahood himself touched on various matters concerning the goddess Asherah in his essay "Ancient Semitic deities in Syria and Palestine," in Le antiche divinitd semitiche (ed. S. Moscati; Rome: Centro di Studi Semitici, 1958) 65-94 passim. 2 P. Matthiae, Ebla: An Empire Rediscovered (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980) 187. See also G. Pettinato, "The Royal Archives of Tell-Mardikh-Ebla," BA 39 (1976) 48. It is sur- prising that Pettinato makes no mention of this in his book The Archives of Ebla (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981). 385 This content downloaded from 143.207.2.50 on Sat, 11 May 2013 22:44:00 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 386 Journal of Biblical Literature appear in any of the texts published so far.3 Until such documentation exists, therefore, this claim needs to be treated with caution. In the second millennium B.C. we find the goddess under the name Asratum in cuneiform texts from the period of the first dynasty of Babylon (ca. 1830-1531 B.C.), where she appears as the consort of the god Amurru.4 Although these texts are in Akkadian rather than a Northwest Semitic language, they are of interest for our present purpose: it is likely that her cult was brought to Mesopotamia by the Amorites. She is usually called "the Lady of the steppe" (belet seri) and in an inscription dedicated to Asratum on behalf of Ham- murabi she is described as kallat sar sami "bride of the king of heaven" and belet kuzbi u ulsi "mistressof sexual vigor and rejoicing." Her name appears in old god lists but occurs only in one personal name, Asratum-ummi ("Asratum is my mother"). Two further items in Akkadian cuneiform deserve to be noted before we return to Northwest Semitic texts, since they relate to Palestine and Syria. The first is a text from Taanach, near Megiddo in northern Palestine, dating from the fifteenth century B.C., and addressed by Guli-Adad to Rewassa (previously read as Istar-wa-sur), the Prince of Taanach. Part of the tablet reads, "Further, and if there is a wizard of Asherah, let him tell our fortunes, and let me hear quickly (?); and the (oracular) sign and inter- pretation send to me." The reading "wizard of Asherah" (u-ma-an dA-si- rat) was suggested by W. F Albright, but F. Hrozny originally read "finger of Asherah" (u-ba-an d A-si-rat).5 Whichever reading is correct, the allusion is tantalizing: if Albright's rendering is correct the reference would call to mind the prophets of Asherah mentioned in 1 Kgs 18:19in the time of Ahab. The second item to be noted here concerns the king of Amurru named Abdi-Asirta "servant of Asirta" (Asherah), mentioned a number of times in the el-Amarna letters, dating from the first half of the fourteenth century B.C. The name is most often spelled abdi-a-si-ir-ta, but we also find abdi-a- si-ir-ti (te), abdi-as-ra-tum, abdi-asa-ra-tum, abdi-as-ra-ti, abdi-as-ra-ti, and abdi-as-ra-ta. 6Both the Taanach and el-Amarna tablets were discovered before the Ugaritic texts, but many scholars at that time refused to accept that they testified to the existence of a goddess Asherah. All this was changed with the discovery of the Ugaritic texts in 1929 and subsequently, to the 3 E.g., G. Pettinato, Catalogo dei testi cuneiformi di Tell Mardikh-Ebla (Naples: Istituto universitario orientale di Napoli, Seminario di Studi Asiatici, 1979) 267 contains no reference to Asherah in its list of divine names. 4 See P Jensen, "Die Gotter Amurru(d) und Asratu," ZA 11 (1896) 302-5; E. Ebeling, "Asratu,"Reallexikon der Assyriologie 1 (Berlin and Leipzig: de Gruyter, 1928) 169; J.-R. Kupper, L'iconographie du dieu Amurru dans la glyptique de la 1 re dynastie babylonienne (Brussels: Palais des Academies, 1961) 61-63, cf. 59, 68, 70, 85. 5 W. F. Albright, "A Prince of Taanach in the Fifteenth Century B.C.," BASOR 94 (1944) 18; F. Hrozny, "Keilschrifttexte von Ta'annek," in E. Sellin, Tell Ta'annek (Vienna: Carl Gerold's Sohn, 1904) 113-14. 6 See O. Weber in J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln 2 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1915). This content downloaded from 143.207.2.50 on Sat, 11 May 2013 22:44:00 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Day: Asherah in the Hebrew Bible 387 discussion of which we must now turn. The Ugaritic texts from Ras Shamra on the Syrian coast, written in alphabetic cuneiform, are our single most important Northwest Semitic source about the goddess Asherah. She is there referred to as 'atrt, which is generally vocalized as Athirat, and appears as the consort of the supreme god El. As befits El's consort, she is sometimes called 'ilt (Elat), literally "goddess" (CTA 3.V.45, 14.IV.198, 15.III.26, etc.). She is the mother of the gods and as such is referred to as qnyt 'ilm "the procreatress of the gods" (see CTA 4.1.23, 4.III.26, 30, 32, 35, etc.). Less well known is a fragmentary text that refers to 'um. 'il [m ] "the mother of the gods" (PRU 11.2.43), which presumably also refers to Athirat. Athirat therefore shared at least to some extent in her consort El's work of creation. El is referred to as bny bnwt "creator of creatures" in the Ugaritic texts (see CTA 4.11.11,6.III.5, 17.1.25, etc.) and 'I qn 'rs "El creator of the earth" in other texts.7 The gods are referred to on one occasion as sb 'm. bn. 'atrt "the seventy sons of Athirat" (CTA 4.VI.46). It is not as widely appreciated as it should be that there is a direct line of connection between this concept and the later Jewish idea of the seventy guardian angels of the nations (see 1 Enoch 89:59; 90:22-25; Tg. Ps.-J. on Deut 32:8).8 Since the idea of the guardian angels of the nations clearly goes back to the concept expressed in Deut 32:8, whereby the Most High "fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God,"9 and since the sons of God reflect the Canaanite idea of sons of El (bn 'il), there must surely be a direct connection with the seventy sons of Athirat referred to at Ugarit.