They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they didn’t know, to new gods that came up recently, which your fathers didn’t dread.
⛓ Read Deuteronomy 32 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Quotation1
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
'They sacrificed to demons, not God' (Song of Moses) is the source of 'the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God' (v.20), near-verbatim. High volume; the Song's demon-sacrifice charge is the scriptural warrant for Paul's whole idol-meat verdict.
High confidenceAllusion2
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'Doctrines of demons' and 'seducing spirits' resonate with the Song of Moses, where Israel 'sacrificed to demons (shedim), not God, to gods they had not known.' The apostate teaching is figured as worship of demonic powers behind false religion.
Medium confidence'They sacrificed to demons, not to God' (LXX edaimoniois) is the OT root for John's striking gloss that idol-worship is demon-worship (9:20, 'worship demons, and the idols'). Ps 106:37 ('sacrificed their sons to demons') is the parallel. Establishes the demons-behind-idols theology rare in the OT.
Medium confidence