Deuteronomy 26:14. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away aught thereof for any unclean use, nor given aught thereof for the dead.
There is no evidence of any allusion here to idolatrous customs. The reference is probably to the feasts which were given on funeral occasions to the friends assembled. See Hosea 9:4. The custom still exists in Palestine. The phrase “given aught thereof for the dead” may have reference to the practice of sending provisions into a house of mourning; to which custom allusion is supposed to be made in 2 Samuel 3:35, where David, on occasion of Abner’s death, refused to eat the food which was set before him. The expression “Eat not the bread of men” in Ezekiel 24:17, is thought to refer to the same custom. See also Jeremiah 16:7-8. Dr. Thomson, however, furnishes a different explanation to this giving for the dead. He says: “On certain days after the funeral large quantities of corn and other food are cooked in a particular manner, and sent to all the friends, however numerous, in the name of the dead. I have had many such presents, but my dislike of the practice, or something else, renders these dishes peculiarly disgusting to me” (The Land and the Book, vol.1, p. 150).