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Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 26

1 When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you occupy it and live in it, 2 you must take the first of all the ground’s produce you harvest from the land the Lord your God is giving you, place it in a basket, and go to the place where he chooses to locate his name. 3 You must go to the priest in office at that time and say to him, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord promised to our ancestors to give us.” 4 The priest will then take the basket from you and set it before the altar of the Lord your God. 5 Then you must affirm before the Lord your God, “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor, and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number, but there he became a great, powerful, and numerous people. 6 But the Egyptians mistreated and oppressed us, forcing us to do burdensome labor. 7 So we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and he heard us and saw our humiliation, toil, and oppression. 8 Therefore the Lord brought us out of Egypt with tremendous strength and power, as well as with great awe-inspiring signs and wonders. 9 Then he brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now, look! I have brought the first of the ground’s produce that you, Lord, have given me.” Then you must set it down before the Lord your God and worship before him. 11 You will celebrate all the good things that the Lord your God has given you and your family, along with the Levites and the resident foreigners among you. 12 When you finish tithing all your income in the third year (the year of tithing), you must give it to the Levites,⁠ the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows so that they may eat to their satisfaction in your villages. 13 Then you shall say before the Lord your God, “I have removed the sacred offering from my house and given it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows just as you have commanded me. I have not violated or forgotten your commandments. 14 I have not eaten anything when I was in mourning, or removed any of it while ceremonially unclean, or offered any of it to the dead;⁠ I have obeyed you and have done everything you have commanded me.⁠ 15 Look down from your holy dwelling place in heaven⁠ and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us, just as you promised our ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey.” 16 Today the Lord your God is commanding you to keep these statutes and ordinances, something you must do with all your heart and soul. 17 Today you have declared the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, commandments, and ordinances, and obey him. 18 And today the Lord has declared you to be his special people (as he already promised you) so you may keep all his commandments. 19 Then he will elevate you above all the nations he has made and you will receive praise, fame, and honor.⁠ You will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he has said.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 26:14 and Psalm 106:28

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy 26 says the Israelites did not offer tithes to the dead, showing a rejection of earlier practices. Psalm 106 echoes this by recalling Israel’s sin at Baal Peor, where sacrifices are described as being made to the dead.

Passages

Deuteronomy 26:14

Hebrew Bible
12 When you finish tithing all your income in the third year (the year of tithing), you must give it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows so that they may eat to their satisfaction in your villages. 13 Then you shall say before the Lord your God, “I have removed the sacred offering from my house and given it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows just as you have commanded me. I have not violated or forgotten your commandments. 14 I have not eaten anything when I was in mourning, or removed any of it while ceremonially unclean, or offered any of it to the dead; I have obeyed you and have done everything you have commanded me. 15 Look down from your holy dwelling place in heaven and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us, just as you promised our ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey.” 16 Today the Lord your God is commanding you to keep these statutes and ordinances, something you must do with all your heart and soul.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Psalm 106:28

Hebrew Bible
26 So he made a solemn vow that he would make them die in the wilderness, 27 make their descendants die among the nations, and scatter them among foreign lands. 28 They worshiped Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. 29 They made the Lord angry by their actions, and a plague broke out among them. 30 Phinehas took a stand and intervened, and the plague subsided.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... Like 1 Samuel 28:3, Psalm 106:28 and Numbers 25:2 have been taken as criticisms of death cult practices. Psalm 106:28 reads: “They yoked themselves to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead." Psalm 106:28 is dependent on the older passage, Numbers 25:2, which does not condemn practices associated with the dead; rather, it forbids “sacrifices of their gods.” Psalm 106:28 condemns “sacrifices of their gods,” since the dead are called elohim, “gods,” in 1 Samuel 28:3 and Isaiah 8:19. One may compare the parallelism of “Rephaim” with “gods,” and the further juxtaposition of these two terms with “gods” and “the dead,” in KTU 1.6 VI 45-49. It appears that only Psalm 107:28 and not Numbers 25:2 is pertinent to the question of practices for the dead. In its present form. Psalm 106 is generally considered to be exilic or later (see verses 40:47). To be sure, one can argue that verse 28 predates the Exile. Nonetheless, it would be difficult to argue for its pertinence for examining practices for the dead prior to the seventh century ..."
Mark S. Smith and Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith, “Death and Afterlife in Ugarit and Israel,” JAOS 108 (1988): 277–284.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Deuteronomy 26:14 and Psalm 106:28

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