Intertextuality Pair

Psalms 81:9-10 → Deuteronomy 5:9

Allusion

Later text

Psalms 81:9-10BSB

There must be no strange god among you, nor shall you bow to a foreign god. I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.

Earlier text

Deuteronomy 5:9BSB

You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

Significance

Psalm 81:9 prohibits bowing to foreign gods — "nor shall you bow to a foreign god" (וְלֹא־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לְאֵל נֵכָר) — echoing the second commandment's prohibition in Deuteronomy 5:9: "You shall not bow down to them or worship them" (לֹא־תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לָהֶם). The shared verb הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה (hishtachavah, "to bow down/worship") connects the psalm's liturgical warning with the Decalogue's formal prohibition. The psalm places this Sinai commandment in the context of a festival celebration, embedding covenant law within worship as a regular reminder that the feasts themselves belong exclusively to the God who brought Israel from Egypt. Deuteronomy 5:9 grounds this prohibition in God's self-description as "a jealous God" (אֵל קַנָּא, El qanna'), the divine jealousy that underlies the psalm's demand for exclusive worship.

Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Redemptive-Historical Progression — Deuteronomy 5:9's prohibition of bowing (הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה) to rivals is re-administered in Psalm 81:9's festival warning with the same verb, the Decalogue carried into Israel's recurring liturgy as redemptive history moves toward the worship the Father seeks — every knee bowing to the LORD alone in His Anointed.

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