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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 Sirach 30:18

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

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Summary

Deuteronomy 26 forbids offering food to the dead as part of Israel’s tithe laws, highlighting the opposition to death-related rituals that once circulated in Israelite society. Sirach 30 echoes this prohibition when criticizing similar practices.

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

Sirach 30:18

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
16 There is no wealth better than health of body. There is no gladness above the joy of the heart. 17 Death is better than a bitter life, and eternal rest than a continual sickness. 18 Good things poured out upon a mouth that is closed are like food offerings laid upon a grave. 19 What does an offering profit an idol? For it can’t eat or smell. So is he who is punished by the Lord, 20 seeing with his eyes and groaning, like a eunuch embracing a virgin and groaning.
195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

References

"... one might conclude that negative criticism or negative depictions of practices with respect to the dead first appears around the middle of the eighth century, perhaps responding to necromancy as a form of competition to prophecy. Objections to other practices, such as feeding the dead with the tithe of Yahweh, appear only later, in the seventh century (Deuteronomy 26:14; compare Psalm 16). If this reconstruction of the development of practices regarding the dead is roughly correct, it would appear that prior to the seventh century, feeding the dead and other practices of care and veneration for the dead flourished in various social strata and quarters of Israelite society. Only necromancy may have been viewed negatively, if 1 Samuel 28:3 provides historically reliable information. Prior to ca. 750, the people engaged in both necromancy and other practices (Isaiah 8:18; Deuteronomy 26:14; compare MT Psalm 22:30 discussed below; Tobit 4:17; Sirach 30:18). The kings had their own elaborate death cult (2 Samuel 18:18; 2 Kings 9:34-37 and 21; compare 1 Samuel 20) which at least some priests tolerated (see Ezekiel 43:7-9). The prophets in the early periods did not object to necromancy ..."
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 Sirach 30:18

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