I. Name

Common to most Semitic languages, the root rkb, “to mount (upon)”, is more often used in connection with chariot-driving than with riding upon an animal (such as an equid or a camel (W. B. Barrick, The Meaning and Usage of RKB in Biblical Hebrew, JBL 101 [1982] 481–503;; id./H. Ringgren, TWAT 7, 508–515). Consequently, both the divine name Rakib-Il and divine epithets such as “Rider-upon-the-clouds” do not relate to the imagery of a riding horseman, but to that of a chariot-driving warri…