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KTU

Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit

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Rephaim

KTU 1.20 II

[...] eight within my palace. The Rephaim hurried to his sanctuary, to his sanctuary hurried the divinities.⁠
They harnessed the chariots, they hitched the horses.⁠
They mounted their chariots, they came on their mounts.
They journeyed a day and a second.
The Rephaim arrived at the threshing floors, [the gods] [at]
the plantations. And Danel, [the man of Rapiu], answered,
the hero, the man of Harnam, replied:
On the threshing floors of the gods, within the [plantations of the divinities]
those who have come will eat a meal, the ancient [ones]⁠
[…]
[…]

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 1.20 II:10 and Deuteronomy 26:14

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy's ban on giving God's harvest offering to the dead limits the kind of care for departed ancestors found at Ugarit, protecting food set aside for God.

Passages

KTU 1.20 II:10

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
[...] eight within my palace. The Rephaim hurried to his sanctuary, to his sanctuary hurried the divinities. They harnessed the chariots, they hitched the horses. They mounted their chariots, they came on their mounts. They journeyed a day and a second. The Rephaim arrived at the threshing floors, [the gods] [at] the plantations. And Danel, [the man of Rapiu], answered, the hero, the man of Harnam, replied: On the threshing floors of the gods, within the [plantations of the divinities] those who have come will eat a meal, the ancient [ones]
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Deuteronomy 26:14

Hebrew Bible
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

References

“... other practices pertaining to the dead. Early veneration for the dead probably included funerary mourning for the dead, feeding the dead, and invoking the dead as sources of divine information and perhaps aid. Negative criticism or negative depictions of customs concerning the dead first appeared around the middle of the eighth century, perhaps as a response to the competition that necromancy posed to prophecy. During the Iron Age, other practices associated with the dead were conducted without conflicting with the cult of Yahweh; not even later criticisms recorded in the Bible suggest otherwise. Explicit objections to feeding the dead with the tithe of Yahweh appear in the seventh century (Deut. 26:14; cf. Psalm 16, and MT Ps. 22:30, which refers to the dead). ...”
Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel, 2nd ed., The Biblical Resource Series (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), PDF 163.

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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KTU 1.20 II:10 and Deuteronomy 26:14

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