Bible Encyclopedias
Weighing of Souls

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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is a practice accredited to the Egyptian gods to determine their place in the future world. The heart of the deceased was placed on one side of the scales held by Horus and Anubis, and the god Thoth registered the result of the weighing. Upon this judgment (which was rendered by Osiris and his forty-two deputies) the irrevocable fate of the soul depended. If the deceased was convicted of unpardonable faults, he became the prey of an infernal monster, with the head of a hippopotamus, and was beheaded by Horns and by Smu, one of the, forms of Set, upon the nemma or infernal scaffold. The most wicked were punished with final annihilation. See Lenormant, Chaldaean Magic, p. 86. (See WEIGHT).