Eṭemmu (Akkadian “ghost”) and the Bible’s View of the Dead
Eṭemmu is the standard Akkadian word for “ghost,” the surviving spirit of a deceased person in Mesopotamian belief. The concept sits behind a number of ancient practices—burial rites, tomb care, offerings of food and water—and informs legal curses and protection rituals. The Bible does not adopt the Akkadian term, yet it engages similar phenomena: mediums, necromancers, the fate of the dead, and the dangers of consulting spirits. Isaiah 19:3 most likely reflects this background when it predicts Egypt’s frantic recourse to necromancy. Understanding eṭemmu illuminates how Scripture reframes death, memory, and spiritual power under the sovereignty of the Lord.
1) What “Eṭemmu” Meant in Mesopotamia
In Mesopotamian religion, eṭemmu denotes the ghost—a visible or audible presence, often associated with wind and night. Key ideas include:
Duality at death: A lifeless body is interred while an eṭemmu persists as an intangible personal remnant.
Burial as integration: Proper burial and continuing rites (food, libations, name invocation) “place” the dead within a structured community of ancestors (eṭem kimti).
Restless dead: Without burial or care, the eṭemmu wanders, troubles the living, or risks dissolution of personal identity—drifting toward a chaotic, demonic realm.
Social fabric: Mortuary customs are not merely “religious”; they encode kinship, memory, and obligations between generations.
This framework explains why ancient curses threaten both denial of burial and deprivation of offerings: to deprive the wrongdoer not only of life, but of a place among the dead.
2) Origins and Wordplay: From Atraḫasīs to Everyday Practice
An Old Babylonian strand (Atraḫasīs I) links humanity’s origin to a slain god whose ṭēmu (mind/plan) is mixed into clay. Wordplay suggests that human awīlu (man) and the postmortem eṭemmu (ghost) alike bear traces of divine “mind.” The implication: humans have a continuing mode of existence after death. Yet that survival is tenuous and conditioned by burial and remembrance. Hence:
Therapeutic and apotropaic texts treat ghost afflictions with remedies or ritual expulsions.
Necromancy (raising an eṭemmu) is known; specialists (mušēli eṭemmi) seek counsel from the dead.
Netherworld imagery ranges from muted “pale imitations” of life to later, harsher visions of dust, darkness, and bird-like shades—signaling a growing chasm between living and dead.
Such materials form a rich backdrop for biblical prohibitions and prophetic critique.
3) Isaiah 19:3 and the Bible’s Polemic Against Consulting the Dead
Isaiah’s oracle against Egypt declares that the Lord will frustrate Egypt’s spirit and destroy its plans; in panic, they will “consult the idols and the ghosts and the familiar spirits” (paraphrasing the verse’s thrust). The Hebrew ʾiṭṭîm likely reflects the Akkadian eṭemmu, with the final -m interpreted as a Hebrew plural sign. The point is not linguistic trivia, but theology:
Crisis reveals loyalties. When political strength fails, Egypt turns to the dead rather than to the living God.
Scripture demythologizes the dead as sources of power: necromancy is real enough to forbid, yet fundamentally impotent and deceptive compared to the Lord’s word.
Prophetic strategy: expose the futility of “other channels” (spirits, omens, idols) and call nations to hear Torah and testimony (cf. Isa 8:19–20).
4) Israel’s Distinct Path: Burial, Memory, and Hope Under Yahweh
Israel’s Scriptures receive the ancient Near Eastern concern for burial and remembrance but reframe it:
Burial matters (Gen 23; 49–50): to honor persons, preserve family identity, and confess hope in God.
Ancestral memory is covenantal, not a means to manipulate postmortem power. Names endure because God remembers (Exod 3:15), not because the living feed spirits.
Sheol is real, yet it does not rival God. The dead “do not praise” (Ps 115:17), which sharpens the desire for God’s deliverance in life and grounds later hope that God will redeem from Sheol (Hos 13:14).
No traffic with spirits. Law and prophets ban mediums and necromancers (Lev 19:31; Deut 18:10–12; Isa 8:19), protecting Israel’s worship and guarding the vulnerable from predatory spiritual commerce.
Thus the Bible affirms dignity in burial and gravity in death while redirecting trust to the Lord alone.
5) Saul at Endor: A Case Study in Transgression
1 Samuel 28 narrates Saul’s desperate visit to a medium to summon Samuel. Regardless of how one parses the apparition, the narrative’s thrust is clear:
Disobedience is cumulative. Having rejected God’s word, Saul now seeks word from the dead.
Prophetic verdict stands. The message he receives confirms prior judgment; necromancy adds no salvation, only condemnation.
Pastoral warning: attempts to mediate the future through the dead twist grief and fear into spiritual rebellion. The living God has already spoken.
Endor exemplifies what Isaiah condemns: turning from revelation to eṭemmu-style counsel in a moment of national crisis.
6) Why the Bible Forbids Necromancy (and What To Do Instead)
Scripture’s “No” serves a larger “Yes”:
No to necromancy because it misplaces trust, confuses realms, exploits grief, and opens doors to predation.
Yes to God’s word, prayer, and wisdom:
Seek counsel from the Lord’s revealed testimony (Isa 8:20).
Practice lament and intercession rather than occult shortcuts (Ps 77; Dan 9).
Honor the dead with burial, remembrance, and justice for the living (Isa 58), not with rites that feed imagined ghostly economies.
The Bible is not skeptical because the ancient practices were harmless; it is skeptical because they enslave and distract from the only true help.
7) Practical Takeaways for Readers and Teachers
Explain the background: Eṭemmu clarifies why burial and memory mattered across the ancient Near East and why ghost language surfaces in law codes and curses.
Contrast frameworks: Mesopotamia integrates the dead into a social economy of offerings; Scripture integrates the dead into God’s remembrance and judgment, not into a market of services.
Read Isaiah 19:3 and 8:19–20 together: in crisis, the question is, “To whose word will you listen?”
Pastoral sensitivity: people pursue forbidden counsel from fear and grief. Teach biblical lament, communal remembrance, and firm hope in the Lord.
Conclusion
Eṭemmu sheds light on the ancient logic of ghosts, graves, and ongoing obligations to the dead. The Bible does not deny the reality of postmortem existence or the potency of occult practices; it disallows them by re-centering life, death, and memory in the Lord’s rule. Isaiah’s warning is perennially relevant: when plans fail and spirits falter, do not turn to the dead for the living. Turn to the God who speaks—and raises.
Bible Verses on Ghosts, Mediums, Burial, and Trust
Isaiah 19:3 — “And the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out within them; and I will confound their counsel; and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers, and of those who whisper and mutter.”
Isaiah 8:19–20 — “And when they say to you, ‘Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,’ should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.”
Leviticus 19:31 — “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.”
Leviticus 20:6 — “If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.”
Deuteronomy 18:10–12 — “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD.”
1 Samuel 28:7 — “Then Saul said to his servants, ‘Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.’ And his servants said to him, ‘Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.’”
Job 7:9–10 — “As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up; he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore.”
Ecclesiastes 12:7 — “And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”
Psalm 115:17–18 — “The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence. But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!”
Hosea 13:14 — “Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.”
