The imagery of thunder and lightning, fire and earthquake which attends YHWH's theophany in Old Testament poetic texts has most often been interpreted as a series of metaphors in biblical scholarship. This work applies insights from recent work in metaphor theory and myth theory—especially with regard to the hermeneutics of the symbol in a metaphorical utterance and a mythic narrative—to argue that this traditional interpretation of poetic theophanic imagery is mistaken, and that these texts make better exegetical sense when understood against the background of the ANE myth of the defeat of chaos. The most important West Semitic version of this myth, the Baal Epic, is examined in order to show the dimensions of this ANE mythic narrative and the use of symbols in it. Metaphorical and mythic frameworks are then applied to various texts from Isaiah and the twelve Minor Prophets in order to show that a metaphorical interpretation of poetic theophanic texts fails to do justice both to their internal unity and their larger contribution to the books in which they are now found. This work thus continues the application of metaphor and myth theory to biblical texts already occurring in biblical studies, as well as providing a new template for interpreting poetic theophanic texts.