Texts in Conversation
Psalm 16 may reject offerings to deceased ancestors like those honored at Ugarit, making loyalty to God a reason to refuse familiar care for the dead.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.6 VI:45
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
Divine Mot was afraid; the Beloved of El, the hero, was in dread. Mot started at her voice and lifted up his voice and cried: “Let Baal be installed on the throne of his kingship, on the back-rest, on the siege of his dominion!” of his dominion […] […] […] […] year […] […] El of mercy […] […] “Come, pray, to the fresh meat; yes, eat the offering-bread; […] fresh; indeed you shall eat pray drink the libation-wine. Shapshu, you rule the saviors; Shapshu, you rule the chthonian gods. the Rephaim are under you; Shapshu, under you are the divine ones; Your company are the gods; lo, mortals are your company. Kothar is your associate, and Hasis is your companion. and Hasis is your friend. In the sea of Arsh and the dragon, Kothar-wa-Hasis, steer the bark!
Psalm 16:4
Hebrew Bible
2 I say to the Lord, “You are the Lord, my only source of well-being.” 3 As for God’s chosen people who are in the land, and the leading officials I admired so much— 4 their troubles multiply; they desire other gods. I will not pour out drink offerings of blood to their gods, nor will I make vows in the name of their gods. 5 The Lord is the portion of my possession and my cup9; you make my future secure. 6 It is as if I have been given fertile fields or received a beautiful tract of land. 7 I will praise the Lord who guides me; yes, during the night my kidneys instruct me15. 8 I set the Lord before me continually16; because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 So my heart rejoices and I am happy; my life is safe.
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Notes and References
“... Psalm 16 complains of those who
“choose another god” with “their drink off erings of blood” (v. 4). Th ese may belong to
“the holy ones” (v. 3). Th e cultic practice of blood libations has been thought to be asso-
ciated with devotion to deceased ancestors, a concern also attested in various ways in
the Ugaritic texts (Spronk 1986: 249, 334–37; cf. Lewis 1989: 166). Accordingly, “the holy
ones in the land” (literally, “earth”) may refer to the dead in the earth or underworld (van
der Toorn 1996: 210). Th ese may compare with “the gods” and “the dead” in parallelism ...” “... in KTU 1.6 VI 45 ( SAC 152), who may participate in food and wine, as mentioned in the
preceding line. ...”
Smith, Mark S.
"Canaanite Backgrounds to the Psalms" in Brown, William P. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms
(p. 47–48) Oxford University Press, 2014
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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