For the dead, do you perform wonders? Even more, do the shades rise up, do they praise you? Is there any recital in the grave of your virtue (ḥesed)? Your reliability in Abaddon? (Ps. 88:10–11) That is where we are headed, to certain rhetorically manipulative statements in the Psalms, and from there to the photosynthesis of liturgy, as blessings are mutually imparted among worshiper and worshiped. Still, some general orientation to the overall corpus is helpful before we head out on our perverse