Lift Up Your Eyes!

Emar VI 42 in the Light of a Ugaritic Prayer

Abstract

Emar VI 42 includes an interesting reference to a Hurrian attack on Emar and its repulse (ll. 9b-16). Because of its historical significance and difficulties in reading the text, scholars have proposed various readings. Although all of them assume that the Emariote soldiers (or the king) achieved this victory with a positive response of Ba‘lu to the prayer of King Pilsu-Dagan, they overlook the intention of the text. As clearly shown by comparison with KTU² 1.119: 26'-36', it is the god Ba‘lu himself who defeated the enemy and saved Emar.
 The same Hurrian attack seems to be recorded also in ASJ 12-T 7, which states that the divination (i.e., extispicy) of the diviner Masrube played a decisive role in repulsing the enemy (ll. 29-33). In this case, one might assume that Ma\v{s}ru\v*{h}e's divination and the positive response of Ba‘lu (by auspice?) in Emar VI 42 are the same. However, since it is not uncommon to inquire of a god through plural means (e.g., Zakkur and Idrimi), it may be fair to assume similar behavior for Pilsu-Dagan. If this is so, it is not strange that the two texts seem to refer to different means of inquiry (extispicy vs. auspice).
 Finally, it is worth noting that Emar VI 42 and KTU² 1.119 share not only the West Semitic expression “to lift up the eyes,” denoting “to pray,” but also the whole plot of divine deliverance of a besieged city. This clearly shows a strong link between Emar and Ugarit within the common cultural world.