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The ANE Desk
Old Testament passages beside the ancient Near Eastern texts they are compared with, and what Israel does with what it shares.
The gods on their thrones
At Ugarit the gods sit on their thrones in the assembled council, and lower their heads when Yamm's messengers come. In Psalm 82 God stands in the assembly of El and puts the gods on trial.
Psalm 82, in every translation this tool compares.
The real question: who are the gods in Psalm 82, and what happens to them? The board met, and the chairman stood up to speak. He might be thanking them, or he might be firing every one of them. The room looks the same. What does God do to the assembly in Psalm 82?
They lower their heads, / On top of their knees, / On their royal thrones.
Both scenes are a meeting of gods with a head god presiding. In the Baal Cycle the gods are gathered at Mount Lalu in what Smith translates as the "Assembled Council"; they sit to feast, "The Holy Ones to dine", and Baal waits on El. When Yamm's messengers arrive the gods drop their heads, and Baal rebukes them with a question. Smith calls this a type-scene and notes that biblical tradition uses it too: in Psalm 82 Yahweh puts the question to the assembly of divine beings, and in both cases the question is an accusation. The Jewish Study Bible notes that the Hebrew of Psalm 82:1 is "the assembly of El," El being the head of the Ugaritic pantheon, and that Most High in verse 6 is an ancient Canaanite title applied to God.
Smith names the turn himself: unlike Baal's predicament, Yahweh's question is followed by the judgment that "the other deities will die like mortals." At Ugarit the gods cower before a threat and El hands Baal over. In Psalm 82 God is the judge, the gods are the accused, and the charge is injustice: they have not defended the poor and the orphan. The Jewish Study Bible says the psalm "forcefully rejects the idea of other gods" by stripping them of their divinity. Walton notes that the Israelite council, like Ugarit's and unlike Mesopotamia's, is made of lesser beings, and that its members carry out decisions without holding real authority.
The close grade rests on the setting, the assembly of El, which every source read here grants. The quoted lines are the gods dropping their heads, which Smith calls a type-scene, so they show the shape of the scene, not a borrowed line. That Psalm 82 uses the divine council picture is common ground in every source read here: Smith, the Jewish Study Bible, the IVP Bible Background Commentary, the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Walton and Heiser. The open question is what the gods are. The Jewish Study Bible says they are divine beings, notes that some read them as human judges, and calls that less likely; it then says the gods of the nations are unmasked as not real gods. Heiser reads them as real divine beings, elohim, under Yahweh. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds note says the word gods is used both of heavenly beings and of the human rulers who act as their agents. The Divine Council Index entry on Psalm 82 sets out the readings in full.
Not a claim that Psalm 82 is a Canaanite poem. The setting is borrowed language for a courtroom. The verdict is Israel's.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/psalm-89-5-7\/","n":"Psalm 89:5-7","s":"Yahweh is feared in the council of the holy ones, and nothing in the skies compares to Him.","r":"Psalm 89:5-7"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/deuteronomy-32-8-9\/","n":"Deuteronomy 32:8-9","s":"The Most High divided the nations, and the number He divided them by is where the whole argument turns.","r":"Deuteronomy 32:8-9"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/el\/","n":"El","s":"The ordinary word for god in the region, and also the name of the chief god of Israel's neighbors.","r":"Genesis 14:18-22"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/bene-elohim\/","n":"Bene elohim","s":"Sons of God: a group of lesser divine beings who show up at God's throne.","r":"Genesis 6:2"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-elohim-of-psalm-82\/","n":"The elohim of Psalm 82","s":"A psalm where God stands up in a room full of gods and sentences them to death.","r":"Psalm 82:1"}
- Mark S. Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume I: Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU 1.1-1.2 (E. J. Brill, 1994), KTU 1.2 I, translation and commentary, n. 178
- The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd ed., ed. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler (Oxford University Press), introduction and notes on Psalm 82
- John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament, 2nd ed. (Baker Academic, 2018), ch. 4, Comparative Exploration 4.3: Yahweh's Council
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (InterVarsity Press), on Psalm 82:1
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, ed. John H. Walton and Craig S. Keener (Zondervan, 2016), notes on Psalm 82:1 and 82:6
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, chs. 3-4
