In Jeremiah 10:10, Yahweh bears two titles that are placed in parallelism: mlk 'wlm "eternal king" and hw'-'lhym chyym "the living God". In Canaanite literature, 'llm or Olam is an epithet that the aged father god El specifically bears, in addition to Ab-shanem "Father of Years," Elyon "Most High", Shaddai "Mountain-Dweller," and others. However the Rephaim, the dead ancestor kings in the netherworld, may also lay claim to 'llm in their kingship. One "Rephaim text" from Ugarit lists several of the Rephaim:
[1] "There was Thamaq the Rapha of Baal, the warrior of Baal and the warrior of Anat. There was Yahipan the valorous, the prince of eternal kingship (zbl mlk 'llmy)" (KTU 1.22 i 7-10).
My earlier post on the Rephaim showed that the Bible described the Rephaim in similar terms (cf. Proverbs 9:18; Isaiah 14:4-11, 26:14), and the concept derives from Canaanite ancestor worship of the great, famed deified kings of old. Although the Rephaim reside in Sheol, El can lead them out to join him on his holy mountain to bless the new king when he is enthroned (note also the water-into-wine motif):
[2] "Throughout that day he poured wine of Thamak, the foaming wine of rulers (srnm), wine to delight the thirsty, the wine of ecstacy. From high up in the Lebanon, dew transformed into foaming wine by El. Lo, a day and a second, the Rephaim ate and drank, a third, a fourth day, a fifth, a sixth day, the Rephaim ate and drank in the lofty banqueting house, on the peak in the heart of the Lebanon" (KTU 1.22 i 17-25).
The leader of the Rephaim, indeed who could be regarded as their ancestor, was Rapiu or Rapha who is mentioned in 2 Samuel 21:15-21 and who likely served as the basis of the Rephaim king Og of Bashan in Deuteronomy 3:11-13. Like King Og of Bashan, Rapiu was described in Ugaritic texts as the king of the same region (i.e. where his cult was centered), and he bears the title "King of Eternity":
[3] "May Rapiu, King of Eternity, drink wine, yea, may he drink the powerful and noble god, the god enthroned in Athtarat, the god who rules in Edrei (i.e. biblical Bashan)....The strength of Rapiu, the King of Eternity, with his help, with his power, by his rule, by his splendor among the Rephaim of the underworld" (KTU 1.108 R 1-3, V 22-24).
Now when we compare Rapiu with Egyptian mythology, he closely resembles Osiris as the king of the netherworld and whom through his son Horus was the source of earthly kingship, and most curiously Osiris also bears the title "King of Eternity":
[4] "Hail to you, Osiris, king of eternity, lord of gods, of many names, of holy forms, of secret rites in temples! Noble of ka he presides in Djedu, he is rich in sustenance in Sekhem" (Great Hymn to Osiris, Amenose Stela, COS 1.26, 1).
The deceased kings in the underworld were also called "lords of eternity". The tomb inscription of Neferhotep declares: "O God's father, what a salvation is yours. Since you have united with the lords of eternity, how enduring is your name forever, glorified in the necropolis" (COS 2.13, III). Thus the biblical description of Yahweh as the "eternal king" has a chthonian connotation, and this is reinforced by the paralleled title hw'-'lhym chyyh "the living God" which contrasts with mwt "death". But there is another use of 'wlm "eternal" in reference to Yahweh that also has a connection to the netherworld. 1 Kings 8:13 refers to the Temple as "a magnificent house (byt)" for Yahweh "to dwell forever ('wlmym)". In rabbinical literature, Beth Olamim is the name for the hoped-for future Temple and throughout Akkadian and Assyrian literature, the expression is similarly used to refer to temples. Thus Nebuchadnezzer wrote in a building inscription:
[5] "In the middle of Borsippa I rebuilt E-zida, the eternal house. I raised it to the highest degree of magnificence with gold, silver, other metals, stone enameled bricks, beams of pine and cedar wood" (COS 2.122B, i).
And similarly in an earlier Sumerian inscription:
[6] "May you build enduringly the eternal house. May you build enduringly Nanna's eternal house, the ?? quarters (?) and the courtyard of Nanna -- the temple whose shadow extends out into the midst of the sea, the E-ki?-nu-gal, the sweet wonder, the temple of Nanna built on empty land" (Hymn to Nanna [G], B 10-17)
So far so good. But the expression "House of Eternity" or "Eternal House" also frequently refers to the tomb of the necropolis in the underworld in Egyptian religion. One example:
[7] "He made (the tomb) as his monument; his first virtue was in adorning his city, that he might perpetuate his name forever, and that he might establish it for eternity in his tomb of the necropolis.... that his name might live in the mouth of the people and abide in the mouth of the living, upon his tomb of the necropolis, in his excellent house of eternity, his seat of everlastingness" (Inscription of Khnumhotep II, par. 2, 14)
The Tale of Sinuhe also alludes to the "eternal cities": "Now old age comes, feebleness has attacked me, my two eyes no longer recall what they see, my two arms droop heavily, my two legs refuse their service, the heart ceases to beat: death approaches me, soon shall I be borne away to the eternal cities" (Sayce, RP 2:Sinuhe). The same usage also appears in post-exilic Jewish literature. Ecclesiastes 12:5, referring to human mortality, thus says that "the human being is going to his eternal house (byt 'wlmw)", exactly the Egyptian concept. In an Aramaic deed of grant from Nahal Hever on the Dead Sea, dated 13 July A.D. 120, also uses the expression wherein a woman's father bequeaths her his property "from the day I go to my eternal house (lbyt 'lmy) and forever". So the expression "eternal house" can refer to either a divine temple or the abode of the dead.
In this vein, and considering the connection between El and Olam "eternity," consider the following passage from the eighth-century B.C. Book of Balaam which describes El's activities in Sheol:
[8] "El satisfied himself with lovemaking, and then El fashioned an eternal house... a house where no traveler enters, nor does a bridegroom enter there. Worm rot from a grave, from the reckless affairs of men, and from the lustful desires of people.... There kings behold (?), there is no mercy when Mot seizes a suckling ... the heart of the corpse is desolate as he approaches Sheol ... to the edge of Sheol and the shadow of the wall, [where] the quest of the king is moth rot" (COS 2.27, II A-H)
Like the Rephaim texts in Isaiah, the Balaam text here stresses the impotence of the kings in Sheol but curiously refers to El building an "eternal house" in the chthonic domain of Mot. The allusion to the walls and "house" suggests a necropolis like the one Mot has lordship over in the Baal Epic:
[9] "Then they set their faces towards divine Mot, towards his city Muddy, a pit the seat of his enthronement, a crevice the land of his inheritance" (KTU 1.5 ii 13-16)
But why is El the one building the Eternal House? And might there similarly be a connection between Yahweh and the underworld, or are the chthonic overtones in the "eternal king" and "eternal house" allusions simply coincidental?