credit: Weighing the heart, Canadian Museum of History

The ancient Egyptian journey into the afterworld was complicated. Similar to Christianity, they believed death was a temporary interruption, rather than the termination of life. They believed there was a state of being where there was a continuation of, and even fulfillment of the good things of this life. The well-known ritual of mummification was done to enable the soul to return to the body, giving it breath and life in the new existence. Funerary texts consisting of spells and prayers were written and placed on tables outside the tomb’s burial chamber to help the dead on their journey to the afterworld. This journey was full of danger and the spells were an essential weapon against those dangers.

A solar bark or barge carried the mummy through the underworld, where serpents armed with knives, and five-headed, fire-spitting dragons were encountered. When the deceased arrived in the realm of Duat (Land of the Gods), they had to pass through seven gates, accurately reciting one of the spells at each stop. If they were successful, they arrived at the Hall of Osiris, the place of judgment, where the gods performed the “weighing of the heart ceremony” to judge whether the person’s earthly deeds were truly virtuous. The ceremony was overseen by Anubis, a jackal-headed god, and was recorded by Thoth, the god of writing.

Forty-two gods listened to the confessions of the deceased, who claimed they were innocent of crimes against the divine and social order. These were in the form of denials, such as: “I have not killed” or “I have not blasphemed a god” (See “The Protestation of Guiltlessness” in Ancient Near Eastern Texts). The individual’s heart was then placed on a scale, counterbalanced by a feather, representing Maat, the goddess or truth and justice. “If the heart was equal in weight to the feather, the person was justified and achieved immortality.” If not, it was devoured by Amemet, a crocodile, lion, hippopotamus goddess. “This meant that the person would not survive in the afterlife.”

There are parallels in the Bible, even with the particular allusion of weighing the heart. But there, it is the Lord (Yahweh), not the Egyptian gods, who weighs the heart. Proverbs 21:2 says, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” The Hebrew word for heart can also mean mind or understanding. Rarely does it refer to concrete, physical things. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament said the majority of its usages refer either to the inner, immaterial nature in general or to one of the three personality functions of man—emotion, thought, or will.

In his commentary, Bruce Waltke said Proverbs 21:1 underscores the Lord’s sovereignty over the king, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.” The Lord is master over the most powerful of human beings, and even their heart. Natural streams of water are not meant, as their direction is fixed. So, the reference here is thinking of irrigation ditches or canals that direct the water according to the Lord’s design: “The Lord is the Farmer; the king’s heart is the flexible channel; and his well-watered garden is the pious and ethical needy.”

While 21:1 notes the Lord’s sovereignty over the king in his bestowing of blessings (the stream of water), 21:2 points to His omniscience over every human being (weighing the heart) and implies the king’s ability to reward and punish justly. This characteristic of a king, being rightly submissive to the Lord and thus able to reward and punish justly, is the context for Nathan rebuking David for his actions in killing Uriah and taking Bathsheba to be his wife.

When Nathan told David the parable of the rich man and the poor man’s lamb, David pronounced judgment against the rich man’s killing of the poor man’s lamb. Nathan then revealed the rich man was David himself and proceeded to pronounce the judgment of the Lord against David for his actions (2 Samuel 12:1-15). The king was judged by the Lord because he had failed in his duty to act justly and upright. Waltke noted how verse 21:2 has a variant in Proverbs 16:2, where the Lord weighs the spirit, not the heart: “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.”

Whereas in 16:2 the conflict of assessment pertains to the planner and doer of an action (16:1, 3), here it pertains to the recipient of the Lord’s blessing through his king. God will not divert life-giving water upon those who act according to their own value system. Self-distrust must be matched by bold confidence in the Lord, who keeps his promises to bless the upright (see 3:5; 16:3).

Proverbs 21:1 and 21:2 are also linked by a chiastic structure with “heart” (verse 1a, verse 2b) and “the Lord” (verse 1b, verse 2a). Then these two verses are linked to the following verses (21:3-29) through YHWH, “the Lord,” and his desire for righteousness and justice, “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice” (21:3). The comparative here in verse 21:3 does not exclude sacrifice as a good. It simply says it is more desirable to the Lord than sacrifice. “Both ethical behavior and cultic actions, such as fine-sounding hymns and well-phrased prayers, are important and desired by the Lord, but he prefers ethics over the cult (cf. 15:8; 20:25).”

Verse 7 explicitly juxtaposes this preference of the Lord to the refusal of the wicked to do what is just, to seek the well-being of all citizens under the heavenly King’s rule. “They divorce ethics and cultus and are repugnant to him.” Verses 21:25-29 intensifies the point. The refusal of the sluggard to labor kills him (v. 21:25); it results in daily craving (v. 21:26). The sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination; more so when he does it with evil intentions (v. 21:27). A false witness will die, but the (true) word will endure (v. 21:28).

When we judge by what seems right in our own eyes, we are following our conscience and not God. God values our obedience to his moral law more than keeping the cultic law. Know that the Lord weighs our hearts and spirits, and that when we commit our work to the Lord, our plans will be established (Proverbs 16:3). To obey the Lord is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22). Waltke noted how Egyptian literature, through common grace, taught the same value: “More acceptable is the character of one upright of heart than the ox of the evildoer.”

Whether you follow the Lord or some other god like Anubis or Toth, remember they weigh your heart.