religion 153
also appears to deal with the replacement of human sacrifice with an ani-
mal sacrifice (lines 11–15).110
two other deities, Bethel and anat-Bethel, from cultic centers in the
kingdom of Bit agusi should be mentioned. the god Bethel111 is a dei-
fied sacred stone and is worshipped as an independent deity. the oldest
evidence for the god Bethel and the goddess anat-Bethel is found in the
list of oath deities in the treaty between King esarhaddon (680–669 B.c.)
and King Baʿal of tyre from 675/674 B.c. (saa ii no. 5 iV 6).112 however,
the deities are older than this attestation, perhaps from the 8th century
B.c. Both deities reappear in the list of oath deities in King esarhaddon’s
succession treaty (saa ii no. 6 467 § 54a) in 672 B.c.113 Beth laha, about
30 km west of aleppo, comes to mind when one thinks of the cultic city
of Bethel. this city is possibly identical with the place Bethel (Kai 224: 34)
mentioned in the treaties of sefire, an identification also supported by the
find of a clay tablet in aramaic from sefire (?). the tablet is a certificate
of credit from 571/570 B.c., which contains several personal names with
the theophoric element “Bethel” (Kai 227).
the goddess anat-Bethel is the paredros of the god Bethel. she is known
from Ugarit and other places from the late Bronze age. her double name
is grammatically a status constructus and expresses the affiliation the god-
dess anat had with the god Bethel.
the subsequent history of this divine couple first leads from their north
syrian place of origin to samerina. in samerina YhWh was worshipped
as the country’s god at the same time that other imported aramaean
deities were also worshipped (2 Kgs 17: 29–33). the deities Bethel and
anat-Bethel, in particular, were brought into a close relationship with the
country’s god, YhWh. the israelites identified Bethel with YhWh and
against this background anat-Bethel became the paredros of YhWh in
the form of anat-Yahu. the literary expression of this process is found in
the elephantine papyri from the 5th century B.c.114 although the religio-
historical connection of Bethel and anat-Bethel with Yahu can be traced
back to samerina in the late 8th and early 7th centuries B.c.
110 textual reconstruction and translation in Kaufman 2007.
111 on this god, cf. especially van der toorn 1992: 83–85; id. 1997: 3–7; röllig 1999b;
pfeiffer 2011.
112 text and translation in parpola – Watanabe 1988: 24–27.
113 text and translation in parpola – Watanabe 1988: 28–58; the deities’ names are
partly reconstructed; cf. ibid., 49.
114 on the mention of the goddesses anat-Yahu and anat-Bethel in elephantine, cf. the
attestations in porten – Yardeni 1989: taD B 7.3: 8; porten –Yardeni 1993: c 3.15: 128.