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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 106

1 Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his loyal love endures. 2 Who can adequately recount the Lord’s mighty acts or relate all his praiseworthy deeds? 3 How blessed are those who promote justice and do what is right all the time.⁠ 4 Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people. Pay attention to me, when you deliver, 5 so I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones, rejoice along with your nation, and boast along with the people who belong to you. 6 We have sinned like our ancestors; we have done wrong, we have done evil.⁠ 7 Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds. They failed to remember your many acts of loyal love, and they rebelled at the sea, by the Red Sea. 8 Yet he delivered them for the sake of his reputation that he might reveal his power.⁠ 9 He shouted at the Red Sea and it dried up;⁠ he led them through the deep water as if it were a desert.⁠ 10 He delivered them from the power of the one who hated them and rescued them from the power of the enemy. 11 The water covered their enemies; not even one of them survived. 12 They believed his promises; they sang praises to him. 13 They quickly forgot what he had done; they did not wait for his instructions. 14 In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving for meat; they challenged God in the wastelands. 15 He granted their request, then struck them with a disease. 16 In the camp they resented Moses and Aaron the Lord’s holy priest. 17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it engulfed the group led by Abiram. 18 Fire burned their group; the flames scorched the wicked. 19 They made an image of a calf at Horeb and worshiped a metal idol.⁠ 20 They traded their majestic God for the image of an ox that eats grass.⁠ 21 They rejected the God who delivered them, the one who performed great deeds in Egypt, 22 amazing feats in the land of Ham, mighty acts by the Red Sea. 23 He threatened to destroy them, but Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him and turned back his destructive anger. 24 They rejected the fruitful land; they did not believe his promise. 25 They grumbled in their tents; they did not obey the Lord. 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. 31 This was credited to Phinehas as a righteous act⁠ for all generations to come.⁠ 32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah, and Moses suffered because of them, 33 for they aroused his temper, and he spoke rashly. 34 They did not destroy the nations, as the Lord had commanded them to do. 35 They mixed in with the nations and learned their ways. 36 They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. 37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. 38 They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted by bloodshed. 39 They were defiled by their deeds and unfaithful in their actions. 40 So the Lord was angry with his people and despised the people who belonged to him. 41 He handed them over to the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them. 42 Their enemies oppressed them; they were subject to their authority. 43 Many times he delivered them, but they had a rebellious attitude and degraded themselves by their sin. 44 Yet he took notice of their distress, when he heard their cry for help. 45 He remembered his covenant with them and relented because of his great loyal love. 46 He caused all their conquerors to have pity on them. 47 Deliver us, O Lord, our God. Gather us from among the nations. Then we will give thanks to your holy name, and boast about your praiseworthy deeds. 48 The Lord God of Israel deserves praise, in the future and forevermore. Let all the people say, “We agree! Praise the Lord!”⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Numbers 25:2 and Psalm 106:28

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Psalm 106 reinterprets Numbers 25 by calling the worship at Baal Peor sacrifices to the dead. Numbers describes the sin as foreign worship, while the psalm connects it to ancient Near Eastern rituals for the dead.

Passages

Numbers 25:2

Hebrew Bible
1 When Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab. 2 These women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 When Israel joined themselves to Baal Peor, the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel. 4 The Lord said to Moses, “Arrest all the leaders of the people, and hang them up before the Lord in broad daylight, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.”
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

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.
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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Numbers 25:2 and Psalm 106:28

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