Isaiah 26:14

Hebrew Bible

13 O Lord, our God, masters other than you have ruled us, but we praise your name alone. 14 The dead do not come back to life, the spirits of the dead do not rise. That is because you came in judgment and destroyed them, you wiped out all memory of them. 15 You have made the nation larger, O Lord; you have made the nation larger and revealed your splendor; you have extended all the borders of the land. 16 O Lord, in distress they looked for you; they uttered incantations because of your discipline.

Psalm 88:11

Hebrew Bible

10 Do you accomplish amazing things for the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and give you thanks? (Selah) 11 Is your loyal love proclaimed in the grave, or your faithfulness in the place of the dead? 12 Are your amazing deeds experienced in the dark region, or your deliverance in the land of oblivion? 13 As for me, I cry out to you, O Lord; in the morning my prayer confronts you. 14 O Lord, why do you reject me, and hide your face from me?23

 Notes and References

"... In many biblical texts, the term rephaim also refers to the dead. In Isaiah 14:9 the term is used in parallel with the kings of the nations. The association with kings seems natural in light of the Ugaritic term rpum, which refers to deified royal ancestors.49 In particular, in Isaiah 14:9 it is said that the rephaim will be roused from their graves. On the other hand, Isaiah 26:14-19 emphasizes that the rephaim do not live and can never rise, and Psalm 88:11 asks ironically whether the rephaim can rise to praise God in the land of oblivion. In contrast to these, Isaiah 14:9 begins to look like Night of the Living Dead. In Job 26:5, oddly, the rephaim seem to live underwater, and tremble beneath the water. Proverbs 2:18 warns of the woman whose house sinks down to death and her course to the rephaim; Proverbs 9:18 and 21:16 warn that men who stray will dwell with the rephaim. They are the company of the dead trembling in their graves, who cannot rise from the land of oblivion, or the ghosts who will indeed rise ..."

Hamori, Esther J. When Gods Were Men: The Embodied God in Biblical and Near Eastern Literature (pp. 123-124) De Gruyter, 2008

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