Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

RESHEPH

(Heb. rešep)

(DEITY)

A Canaanite deity of plague (Ugar. ršp; cf. Heb. rešep, “flame,” perhaps related to fever; cf. Akk. Nergal), attested as early as the mid-2nd millennium b.c.e. at Ebla. Such mythological sense may underlie biblical usage of the Hebrew term, often translated “plague” (Deut. 32:24, “burning consumption”; cf. Cant. 8:6). The usage at Job 5:7 (NRSV mg “sons of Resheph”); Ps. 76:3(MT 4); 78:48 connoting the flash of flying (perhaps flaming) arrows may derive from the Ugaritic epithet of Resheph, bʾl ḥs, “lord of the arrow” (cf. his identification in inscriptions from Cyprus with Apollo, whose arrows bring sickness). At Hab. 3:5 “pestilence” and “plague” (Heb. deḇer) escort Yahweh as he marches in theophany, reminiscent of Ugaritic paired deities.

Bibliography. W. J. Fulco, The Canaanite God Rešep. AOS 8 (New Haven, 1976).

Allen C. Myers

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

RESHEPH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)