Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 106:34
They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them:
34. They did not destroy the peoples,
As Jehovah had commanded them.
For the command so often repeated see Exo 23:32-33; Exo 34:12 ff.; Deu 7:2 ff.: and for the neglect of it, Jdg 1:21; Jdg 1:27; Jdg 1:29 ff., Jdg 2:1 ff.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
34 39. The continued disobedience of Israel even after the Entry into Canaan. Neglecting the command to exterminate the Canaanites they became infected by their abominations.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They did not destroy the nations – The Canaanites, Hivites, Jebusites, etc.; the nations that inhabited the land of Canaan.
Concerning whom the Lord commanded them – The command on this subject was positive; and it was to destroy them, to spare none of them. Num 33:52; Deu 7:5, Deu 7:16.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Concerning whom, i.e. concerning whose destruction or rather, which thing to wit, to destroy those Canaanitish nations; for in the Hebrew there is nothing but asher, which signifies only either whom or which.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
34-39. They not only failed toexpel the heathen, as God
commanded (Exo 23:32;Exo 23:33), literally, “said(they should),” but conformed to their idolatries [Ps106:36], and thus became spiritual adulterers (Ps73:27).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They did not destroy the nations,…. Here begins an account of their sins and provocations, after they were settled in the land of Canaan. They did not destroy the inhabitants of the land, of the seven nations; whose land was given to them as an inheritance, and of which the Canaanites were dispossessed for their sins, and to be destroyed.
Concerning whom the Lord commanded them; that they should destroy them; the command is in De 7:1. God’s commands are to be obeyed; they are neither to be added to, nor diminished from; his commands are transgressed and violated by sins of omission or commission; the Israelites might plead mercy, but this was no excuse to an express command: the same sin Saul was afterwards guilty of, with respect to one of these nations, 1Sa 15:2. Those spiritual Canaanites, the sinful deeds of the body, are to be mortified, and not indulged and spared, Col 3:5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The sins in Canaan: the failing to exterminate the idolatrous peoples and sharing in their idolatry. In Psa 106:34 the poet appeals to the command, frequently enjoined upon them from Exo 23:32. onwards, to extirpate the inhabitants of Canaan. Since they did not execute this command (vid., Jdg 1:1), that which it was intended to prevent came to pass: the heathen became to them a snare (mowqeesh), Exo 23:33; Exo 34:12; Deu 7:16. They intermarried with them, and fell into the Canaanitish custom in which the abominations of heathenism culminate, viz., the human sacrifice, which Jahve abhorreth (Deu 12:31), and only the demons ( , Deu 32:17) delight in. Thus then the land was defiled by blood-guiltiness ( , Num 35:33, cf. Isa 24:5; Isa 26:21), and they themselves became unclean (Eze 20:43) by the whoredom of idolatry. In Psa 106:40-43 the poet (as in Neh 9:26.) sketches the alternation of apostasy, captivity, redemption, and relapse which followed upon the possession of Canaan, and more especially that which characterized the period of the judges. God’s “counsel” was to make Israel free and glorious, but they leaned upon themselves, following their own intentions ( ); wherefore they perished in their sins. The poet uses (to sink down, fall away) instead of the (to moulder, rot) of the primary passage, Lev 26:39, retained in Eze 24:23; Eze 33:10, which is no blunder (Hitzig), but a deliberate change.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Provocation of Israel in the Wilderness; The Divine Compassion. | |
34 They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them: 35 But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. 36 And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them. 37 Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, 38 And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. 39 Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. 40 Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. 41 And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. 42 Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand. 43 Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. 44 Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, when he heard their cry: 45 And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies. 46 He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives. 47 Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise. 48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD.
Here, I. The narrative concludes with an account of Israel’s conduct in Canaan, which was of a piece with that in the wilderness, and God’s dealings with them, wherein, as all along, both justice and mercy appeared.
1. They were very provoking to God. The miracles and mercies which settled them in Canaan made no more deep and durable impressions upon them than those which fetched them out of Egypt; for by the time they were just settled in Canaan they corrupted themselves, and forsook God. Observe,
(1.) The steps of their apostasy. [1.] They spared the nations which God had doomed to destruction (v. 34); when they had got the good land God had promised them they had no zeal against the wicked inhabitants whom the Lord commanded them to extirpate, pretending pity; but so merciful is God that no man needs to be in any case more compassionate than he. [2.] When they spared them they promised themselves that, notwithstanding this, they would not join in any dangerous affinity with them. But the way of sin is down-hill; omissions make way for commissions; when they neglect to destroy the heathen the next news we hear is, They were mingled among the heathen, made leagues with them and contracted an intimacy with them, so that they learned their works, v. 35. That which is rotten will sooner corrupt that which is sound than be cured or made sound by it. [3.] When they mingled with them, and learned some of their works that seemed innocent diversions and entertainments, yet they thought they would never join with them in their worship; but by degrees they learned that too (v. 36): They served their idols in the same manner, and with the same rites, that they served them; and they became a snare to them. That sin drew on many more, and brought the judgments of God upon them, which they themselves could not but be sensible of and yet knew not how to recover themselves. [4.] When they joined with them in some of their idolatrous services, which they thought had least harm in them, they little thought that ever they should be guilty of that barbarous and inhuman piece of idolatry the sacrificing of their living children to their dead gods; but they came to that at last (Psa 106:37; Psa 106:38), in which Satan triumphed over his worshippers, and regaled himself in blood and slaughter: They sacrificed their sons and daughters, pieces of themselves, to devils, and added murder, the most unnatural murder, to their idolatry; one cannot think of it without horror. They shed innocent blood, the most innocent, for it was infant-blood, nay, it was the blood of their sons and their daughters. See the power of the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, and see his malice. The beginning of idolatry and superstition, like that of strife, is as the letting forth of water, and there is no villany which those that venture upon it can be sure they shall stop short of, for God justly gives them up to a reprobate mind, Rom. i. 28.
(2.) Their sin was, in part, their own punishment; for by it, [1.] They wronged their country: The land was polluted with blood, v. 38. That pleasant land, that holy land, was rendered uncomfortable to themselves, and unfit to receive those kind tokens of God’s favour and presence in it which were designed to be its honour. [2.] They wronged their consciences (v. 39): They went a whoring with their own inventions, and so debauched their own minds, and were defiled with their own works, and rendered odious in the eyes of the holy God, and perhaps of their own consciences.
2. God brought his judgments upon them; and what else could be expected? For his name is Jealous, and he is a jealous God. (1.) He fell out with them for it, v. 40. He was angry with them: The wrath of God, that consuming fire, was kindled against his people; for from them he took it as more insulting and ungrateful than from the heathen that never knew him. Nay, he was sick of them: He abhorred his own inheritance, which once he had taken pleasure in; yet the change was not in him, but in them. This is the worst thing in sin, that it makes us loathsome to God; and the nearer any are to God in profession the more loathsome are they if they rebel against him, like a dunghill at our door. (2.) Their enemies then fell upon them, and, their defence having departed, made an easy prey of them (Psa 106:41; Psa 106:42): He gave them into the hands of the heathen. Observe here how the punishment answered to the sin: They mingled with the heathen and learned their works; from them they willingly took the infection of sin, and therefore God justly made use of them as the instruments of their correction. Sinners often see themselves ruined by those by whom they have suffered themselves to be debauched. Satan, who is a tempter, will be a tormentor. The heathen hated them. Apostates lose all the love on God’s side, and get none on Satan’s; and when those that hated them ruled over them, and they were brought into subjection under them, no marvel that they oppressed them and ruled them with rigour; and thus God made them know the difference between his service and the service of the kings of the countries, 2 Chron. xii. 8. (3.) When God granted them some relief, yet they went on in their sins, and their troubles also were continued, v. 43. This refers to the days of the Judges, when God often raised up deliverers and wrought deliverances for them, and yet they relapsed to idolatry and provoked God with their counsel, their idolatrous inventions, to deliver them up to some other oppressor, so that at last they were brought very low for their iniquity. Those that by sin disparage themselves, and will not by repentance humble themselves, are justly debased, and humbled, and brought low, by the judgments of God. (4.) At length they cried unto God, and God returned in favour to them, v. 44-46. They were chastened for their sins, but not destroyed, cast down, but not cast off. God appeared for them, [1.] As a God of mercy, who looked upon their grievances, regarded their affliction, beheld when distress was upon them (so some), who looked over their complaints, for he heard their cry with tender compassion (Exod. iii. 7) and overlooked their provocations; for though he had said, and had reason to say it, that he would destroy them, yet he repented, according to the multitude of his mercies, and reversed the sentence. Though he is not a man that he should repent, so as to change his mind, yet he is a gracious God, who pities us, and changes his way. [2.] As a God of truth, who remembered for them his covenant, and made good every word that he had spoken; and therefore, bad as they were, he would not break with them, because he would not break his own promise. [3.] As a God of power, who has all hearts in his hand, and turns them which way soever he pleases. He made them to be pitied even of those that carried them captives, and hated them, and ruled them with rigour. He not only restrained the remainder of their enemies’ wrath, that it should not utterly consume them, but he infused compassion even into their stony hearts, and made them relent, which was more than any art of man could have done with the utmost force of rhetoric. Note, God can change lions into lambs, and, when a man’s ways please the Lord, will make even his enemies to pity him and be at peace with him. When God pities men shall. Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia–A God at peace with us makes every thing at peace.
II. The psalm concludes with prayer and praise. 1. Prayer for the completing of his people’s deliverance. Even when the Lord brought back the captivity of his people still there was occasion to pray, Lord, turn again our captivity (Psa 126:1; Psa 126:4); so here (v. 47), Save us, O Lord our God! and gather us from among the heathen. We may suppose that many who were forced into foreign countries, in the times of the Judges (as Naomi was, Ruth i. 1), had not returned in the beginning of David’s reign, Saul’s time being discouraging, and therefore it was seasonable to pray, Lord, gather the dispersed Israelites from among the heathen, to give thanks to thy holy name, not only that they may have cause to give thanks and hearts to give thanks, that they may have opportunity to do it in the courts of the Lord’s house, from which they were now banished, and so may triumph in thy praise, over those that had in scorn challenged them to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. 2. Praise for the beginning and progress of it (v. 48): Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. He is a blessed God from eternity, and will be so to eternity, and so let him be praised by all his worshippers. Let the priests say this, and then let all the people say, Amen, Hallelujah, in token of their cheerful concurrence in all these prayers, praises, and confessions. According to this rubric, or directory, we find that when this psalm (or at least the closing verses of it) was sung all the people said Amen, and praised the Lord by saying, Hallelujah. By these two comprehensive words it is very proper, in religious assemblies, to testify their joining with their ministers in the prayers and praises which, as their mouth, they offer up to God, according to his will, saying Amen to the prayers and Hallelujah to the praises.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Israel’s Marriage Rebellion
God’s Pity
Scripture v. 34-48:
Verses 34-36 relate that they: 1) did not destroy the nations, as God commanded them, for lack of faith and zeal.
Verse 35 adds that they “mingled among,” intertwined with these heathen, and learned to practice their wicked deeds, though warned not to, Jos 23:12-13; Deu 7:3-4; As Solomon too sinned later, turning also to idolatry by evil influence of such forbidden marriage union, a snare to their destruction, like a bird or animal trapped by a snare, Exo 10:7.
Verses 37, 38 charge that they too sacrificed (burned) their sons and their daughters unto devils (demon spirits), in worship to the idol gods of Canaan, shedding the blood of their innocent (small) children, polluting the land with their blood, Deu 32:17; This was in defiance of Deu 19:10; Deu 12:31; Deu 18:10; So the land was polluted with children sacrificed to Moloch, Num 35:33.
Verse 39 adds that in this behavior they were “defiled with their own works, and went a whoring (spiritual fornication) with their own inventions, Lev 17:7; Num 15:39.
Verse 40 explains that God was so incensed for their sins of intermarriage and spiritual fornication with heathen Idolatry that He “abhorred his own inheritance,” His own people, Psa 78:59; Psa 78:62.
Verses 41, 42 relate that He gave them (for chastisement) into the hands of the heathen who ruled over them with an hand . of despicable hatred; They stooped so low in their moral, marital behavior, and their embracing idolatrous worship, that even the heathen with whom they mingled In marriage hated them,’ Jdg 2:14; Lev 26:17. Their enemies oppressed them, even to abject slavery under their hands, Jdg 3:30.
Verse 43 recounts that God delivered them many times (repeatedly) from heathen oppression, yet they kept on provoking Him by disregarding His counsel so that they were impoverished or weakened because of their lawless ways, Jdg 2:16; Neh 9:26-37; Eze 33:10.
Verse 44 explains that “nevertheless he regarded their affliction (with pity), when he heard their cry,” their plea for mercy, Jdg 10:10; Exo 2:25; Exo 4:31.
Verse 45 certifies that “He remembered for them his covenant,” for His integrity’s sake, Lev 26:41; 2Ki 13:23; Psa 105:6; Luk 1:71. And he “repented (turned from destroying them) “according to the multitude of His mercies,” La 3:32; Deu 4:31.
Verse 46 adds that He caused the ones who captured them to show mercy also to them, even according to Solomon’s prayer, 1Ki 8:50; Dan 1:9; Gen 39:21; See also Evil Merodach’s kindly treatment of Jehoiachin, King of Judah, 2Ki 25:27; Ezr 9:9; Jer 42:12.
Verse 47 appeals “save (liberate) us, O Lord our God, and gather us (Israel) from among the heathen,” that we may “give thanks (gratitude) unto thy holy name, and (cause us) to triumph in thy praise,” Jer 32:37; Jer 32:41; Luk 1:74; 2Co 5:15; See also the promise on which this prayer rested, Deu 30:3; 2Ch 7:14-16; 1Ch 16:35-36, Psa 48:10; Psa 105:3.
Verse 48 expresses a benediction to the Lord God of Israel, with a doxology of praise “from everlasting to everlasting,” much as each of the previous three books of the PSALM has concluded. Though “Hallelujah” is here added as a praise call. It is concluded that all the people should say “Amen” and “Hallelujah” to the Lord. This closes the fourth book of the Psalms 90-106, corresponding with the book of Numbers.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
34. They did not destroy the nations It appears to me that those persons are mistaken who think that the prophet is here simply giving a relation of the punishment which was inflicted upon the Jews, as if he were imputing to them the entire blame of not exterminating the nations, in consequence of their not deserving the honor of obtaining any more victories over them. But he rather prefers another charge against them, that they had been remiss in driving out the heathen, or more probably that they had not obeyed the Divine command to root them out of the land. Now that the cup of the iniquity of the Amorites was full, it was the purpose of God that they should be exterminated, lest their society might prove injurious to the holy people. For God, having chosen that land for a habitation to himself, intended that it should be holy and purified from all defilement. In refusing, therefore, to execute the vengeance enjoined upon them, the people showed their willingness to associate with the uncircumcised inhabitants of Canaan. In manifesting such indifference about God’s command respecting the driving out these nations, they gave just cause for his anger waxing hot against them. Behold, saith he, I have commanded all these nations to be cut off by the sword; and now, because ye have not obeyed my voice,
“
they shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell,” Num 33:55
The not destroying all these nations, but permitting some of them to remain, might appear to be an act of mercy; but in thus acting, the people were guilty of neglecting to execute God’s righteous vengeance upon them, and of leaving the land liable to be polluted with their abominations. From these things it ought to be noticed, that there are two extremes in which men are apt to indulge, either in being unnecessarily over rigorous, or in defeating the ends of justice by too great lenity. We must, therefore, adhere strictly to God’s command, if we would desire to shun both extremes. For if the Israelites are condemned for sparing some of these nations wholly, what are we to think of those judges who, from a timid and apathetic attention to the responsible duties of their office, exercise too much lenity to a few persons, thus weakening the restraints of the inlets to vice, to the great detriment of the public weal?
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(34-39) The national sin after the settlement in Canaan.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
34. They did not destroy the nations This was the seventh great sin of the nation, according to the enumeration of the psalm. The command was given as stated Exo 23:32-33, and reiterated in Jos 23:12-13. But early after their settlement in Canaan their faith failed, the wars abated, and many powerful hostile cities and tribes remained. See Jdg 2:3. These were thorns and snares to Israel in all future time.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 106:34 They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them:
Ver. 34. They did not destroy the nations ] For which neglect of theirs pity would be pleaded. But there is a cruel mercy, saith one; there is a pious cruelty, saith another. Cursed is he that doeth the Lord’s work deceitfully, and cursed is he that restraineth his sword from blood when God biddeth him strike. Saul and Ahab felt the dint of this curse, and so did these Israelites, for sparing the Canaanites, whether out of pusillanimity or foolish pity.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 106:34-39
34They did not destroy the peoples,
As the Lord commanded them,
35But they mingled with the nations
And learned their practices,
36And served their idols,
Which became a snare to them.
37They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,
38And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and their daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with the blood.
39Thus they became unclean in their practices,
And played the harlot in their deeds.
Psa 106:34-39 This strophe reflects God’s words to Israel about interaction with the Canaanites (cf. Exo 34:10-17; Deu 7:1-6; Deu 7:16; Deu 20:16-18). The book of Joshua describes the defeat of the major walled cities of Canaan, but each tribe must finish the task of driving out the Canaanites from their own tribal allocations. They did not (i.e., Jdg 1:21; Jdg 1:27, etc.). The consequences are clearly stated in Num 33:50-56!
Psa 106:35 the nations See Special Topic: Pre-Israelite Inhabitants of Palestine.
Psa 106:36 Which became a snare This word, snare (BDB 430), is a reference to an animal trap (lit. bait or lure). It was used metaphorically of the temptation to Canaanite fertility worship (cf. Exo 23:33; Deu 7:16; Jdg 2:3).
Psa 106:37-38 This refers to the worship of the fertility god, Molech.
SPECIAL TOPIC: MOLECH
Psa 106:37 demons This (BDB 993) refers to pagan gods (cf. Deu 32:17). The word is used only twice in the OT. It is possibly a loan word from Aramaic. The concept of pagan idols as demons is seen in the NT in 1Co 10:19-20 and Rev 9:20.
SPECIAL TOPIC: ANGELS and DEMONS
Psa 106:38 the land was polluted The land of Canaan was polluted by the Canaanites (cf. Gen 15:16) and now by the Israelites (cf. Num 35:33-34; Jer 3:2-10). Canaan belonged to YHWH. It was His land.
Psa 106:39 played the harlot This (BDB 275, KB 275, Qal imperfect with waw) is a Hebrew idiom for idolatrous worship (cf. Jdg 2:17; Ezekiel 23; Hos 5:3). It is based on the imagery of YHWH as Father and Israel as wife (cf. Hosea 1-3). To go after another god was viewed as spiritual adultery (cf. Exo 34:15; Num 15:39; Psa 73:27; Hos 4:12; Hos 9:1). Sometimes the imagery is both figurative and literal because many/most of the fertility worship was by imitation magic (i.e., sexual activity in the name of and at the site of worship).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
did not destroy. Compare Jdg 1:21-29, &c.
nations = peoples: i.e. the Canaanite nations. See App-23and App-25.
commanded. Compare Exo 23:32, Exo 23:33 : and often repeated. For the reason, see App-23and App-25.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 106:34-35
Psa 106:34-35
SIN NO. 8
This was the failure of Israel to exterminate the pagan residents of Canaan as God had repeatedly and specifically commanded them to do. This was a “key sin” indeed, for a great many other sins were the direct result.
“They did not destroy the peoples,
As Jehovah commanded them,
But mingled themselves with the nations,
And learned their works.”
The whole Book of Joshua records many of the details of this disobedience on Israel’s part. There were epic results indeed from this failure; because in time, Israel was totally corrupted by the same idolatrous practices which had destroyed the peoples of Canaan before them, and on account of which God removed them.
E.M. Zerr
Psa 106:34-36. This paragraph is on the one subject of the mixing up with the heathen. The reader may see a detailed account of the subject in Judges 1, 2.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Regarded When They Cried
Psa 106:34-48
Israels conquest of Canaan did not fulfill the divine mandate. The inhabitants, whose sins had become a menace to mankind, were allowed to exist side by side with the Hebrew immigrants; and, as is often the case, the conquerors were conquered, and the invaders were contaminated by the morals of the invaded. Intermarriage poured a large admixture of alien blood into Israel, and the excesses of idolatry, even to the hideous practice of human sacrifices, became intensified by the ties of kinship and neighborhood.
The whole history of Israel is summed up as alternating cycles of sin and punishment, repentance and deliverance; and we are left wondering, first at the inveterate evil of the human heart, which learns nothing from experience, and next at the inexhaustible long-suffering of God, which, while justice strikes, yet finds some way of alleviating the smart of the stroke, Psa 106:46. The love of God persists all through humanism and outreaches it.
The prayer of Psa 106:47 shows that this psalm was written in exile. The psalmist hopes and believes that one result of his peoples restoration will be thankfulness and the expression upon grateful lips of never-ending praise. So ends the fourth book of the Psalter.
For Review Questions, see the e-Sword Book Comments.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
did not: Jos 15:63, Jos 16:10, Jos 17:12-16, Jos 23:12, Jos 23:13, Jdg 1:19, Jdg 1:21, Jdg 1:27-35, Mat 17:19-21
concerning: Num 33:52, Num 33:55, Num 33:56, Deu 7:2, Deu 7:16, Deu 7:23, Deu 7:24, Deu 20:16, Deu 20:17, 1Sa 15:3, 1Sa 15:22, 1Sa 15:23
Reciprocal: Deu 12:30 – that thou Deu 20:18 – General Jdg 1:32 – General Jdg 2:2 – but ye have Jdg 3:5 – dwelt Jdg 6:1 – did evil 1Sa 7:14 – peace 1Sa 8:8 – General 1Ki 9:21 – left 2Ki 21:15 – since the day 1Ch 5:25 – after the gods 2Ch 8:8 – whom the children Neh 9:26 – they were Mal 2:11 – profaned
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 106:34-39. They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom Concerning whose destruction, the Lord commanded them For when the iniquity of the Canaanites was full, it was Gods will to extirpate their race, and Israel was commissioned to execute upon them the vengeance determined. But were mingled among the heathen In their habitations and negotiations, as also in marriages. And they served their idols Which idols were an occasion of their falling both into further and greater sins, as it follows, Psa 106:37-38, and into utter ruin. They sacrificed their sons and daughters Of which heathenish practice, see the notes on Lev 18:21. Unto devils By which expression he informs them that they did not worship God as they pretended, but devils in their idols; and that those spirits that were supposed by the heathen idolaters to inhabit their images, and which they worshipped in them, were not good spirits, as they imagined, but evil spirits or devils. And shed innocent blood The blood of their children, who, though depraved before God, yet were innocent as to them, from any crime deserving such barbarous usage from them. Thus were they defiled with their own works And rendered abominable in the sight of a holy God; and went a whoring with their own inventions Committed spiritual whoredom, by worshipping those idols which were but human inventions, and that in such an unnatural and bloody manner as they had devised.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 106:34-39 relate Israel’s unfaithfulness in the Promised Land. Rather than destroying the Canaanites and their altars, as God had commanded, the Israelites lived among these people, learned their customs, and worshipped their gods. They even participated in child sacrifice rites associated with pagan worship. These involved worshipping demons rather than the true God (cf. Deu 32:17; 1Co 10:20). Israel behaved as a harlot by being unfaithful to God.
Psa 106:40-46 summarize the approximately 300 years of Israel’s history that the Book of Judges records (cf. Jdg 2:11-23). The Israelites sank lower and lower spiritually during those years. It was God’s faithfulness to His covenant with them and His loyal love that led Him to have mercy on them repeatedly. When they cried out to Him He delivered them (cf. Jdg 3:15; et al.). The truth of Psa 106:46 stands documented in Israel’s later history (cf. Ezr 9:9; Neh 2:8; Est 8:7-12; et al.).