Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 106:37
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
37. unto devils) Better, demons (LXX Syr. Targ. Jer.). From Deu 32:17, “they sacrificed unto demons, which were no god,” the only other passage in the O.T. where the word shdm occurs. “In Assyrian, shdu is the name of the divinities represented by the bull-colossi, so often found in the front of Assyrian palaces, who were regarded apparently not as gods properly so called, but as subordinate spirits, demi-gods or genii, invested with power for good or evil.” Etymologically the Heb. word may mean lords, but the precise idea attached to it cannot now be determined. Most probably it “denotes some kind of subordinate spirit or demi-god.” Driver on Deu 32:17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters – See 2Ki 16:3; Eze 16:20; Eze 20:31; Isa 57:5.
Unto devils – Hebrew, shediym. The Septuagint, daimoniois, demons. So the Vulgate, daemoniis. The word is used only in the plural number, and is applied to idols. It occurs only in this place, and in Deu 32:17. On the meaning of this, see the notes at 1Co 10:20.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 37. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils.] See the places referred to in the margin (2Kg 16:3; Isa 57:5; Eze 16:20; Eze 20:26). That causing their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Moloch did not always mean they burnt them to death in the flames, is very probable. But all the heathen had human sacrifices; of this their history is full. Unto devils, lashshedim, to demons. Devil is never in Scripture used in the plural; there is but ONE devil, though there are MANY demons.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Of which heathenish practice, See Poole “Lev 18:21“.
Unto devils; by which expression he informeth them that they did not worship God, as they pretended and sometimes designed, but devils in their idols; and that those spirits which were supposed by the heathen idolaters to inhabit in their images, and which they worshipped in them, were not gods or good spirits, as they imagined, but evil spirits or devils. See Lev 17:7; Deu 32:17; 1Co 10:20; Rev 9:20.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
37. unto devilsSeptuagint,“demons” (compare 1Co10:20), or “evil spirits.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. Who have their name here given them from a word that signifies to waste and destroy, they being the destroyers of mankind. So the Targum renders it by , which signifies spirits noxious and hurtful; but R. Elias Levita, in his Tishbi, p. 233, says it is a mistake to derive it from the root which signifies to waste and destroy; for then he says the “daleth” should have a “dagesh”; but does not tell us from whence it is derived. De Dieu, on Mt 9:32, derives it from the Arabic word , “to rule”, for these demons were heroes, princes who ruled over others, and so were reckoned among the gods. As Satan, the head of them, was a murderer from the beginning, the cause of the ruin of our first parents, and of all their posterity; and may be truly called, as the king of the locusts is, “Apollyon” or “Abaddon”, Joh 8:44 these the Israelites sacrificed unto, as the Gentiles did, Le 17:7 and not lambs and rams, sheep, goats, and bullocks, but their sons and daughters; which they not only caused to pass through the fire to Moloch, which was a lustration of them by the flame, or causing them to pass between two fires; but they sacrificed them to be devoured, and actually burned them; see Jer 7:31. From whence we may see of what a hardening nature sin is, and how by degrees persons may be brought to commit things the most shocking to nature, and which they some time before shuddered at. First, these Israelites mix themselves with the Heathens they spared, whom they should have destroyed; then they learn, by being among them, to do as they did, to walk in the vanity of their minds like them; and then they are enticed to serve their idols, and at last to sacrifice their sons and daughters to devils; which was no other than murder, and that of the most heinous nature: as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
37. And they sacrificed The prophet here mentions one species of superstition which demonstrates the awful blindness of the people; their not hesitating to sacrifice their sons and daughters to devils. (269) In applying such an abominable designation to the sin of the people, he means to exhibit it in more hateful colors. From this we learn that inconsiderate zeal is a flimsy pretext in favor of any act of devotion. For by how much the Jews were under the influence of burning zeal, by so much does the prophet convict them with being guilty of greater wickedness; because their madness carried them away to such a pitch of enthusiasm, that they did not spare even their own offspring. Were good intentions meritorious, as idolaters suppose, then indeed the laying aside of all natural affection in sacrificing their own children was a deed deserving of the highest praise. But when men act under the impulse of their own capricious humor, the more they occupy themselves with acts of external worship, the more do they increase their guilt. For what difference was there between Abraham and those persons of whom the prophet makes mention, but that the former, under the influence of faith, was ready to offer up his son, while the latter, carried away by the impulse of intemperate zeal, cast off all natural affection, and imbrued their hands in the blood of their own offspring.
(269) “ לשדים, to the devils. This word is found only here and in Deu 32:17, ‘They sacrificed unto devils, not to God,’ etc. Some persons derive it from שוד, to lay waste. Michaelis, from an Arabic word, signifying to be black. Hengstenberg, from an Arabic word, signifying to exercise lordship. Whatever root may be the true one, there is no doubt that שדים denotes false gods of some kind or another to which human sacrifices were offered ” — Phillips. That the Canaanites, and their descendants, the Carthaginians, as well as other heathen nations, sacrificed men, and even their dearest children, to appease their deities, is a fact established not only from the Sacred Writings, but also from profane history; and strange as it may seem, it is no less certain, that in this they were imitated by the Israelites, who offered their sons and daughters to the same false gods. Compare 2Kg 16:3; 2Ch 28:3. They had been expressly warned against this horrid practice, (Lev 18:21; Deu 12:31😉 but so infatuated were they, and such is the desperate wickedness of the human heart and the power of Satan over men, that they frequently relapsed into it. Dr Adam Clarke translates the original word which Calvin renders devils by demons. “ Devil, ” says he, “is never in Scripture used in the plural; there is but one devil, though there are many demons.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(37) Devils.Literally, lords, meaning, of course, the false deities. The word is, no doubt, chosen to represent the meaning of the heathen gods names Baalm, Adonm. For the same Hebrew word, see Deu. 32:17 (Jdg. 2:11, Baalim).
The Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew word became in Spain the Cid, and exists still in the Moorish sidi, i.e., my lord.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
37. They sacrificed unto devils Literally, unto lords, for thus the heathen regarded their chief divinities, as Baal. But these powerful ones, like Moloch, were destroyers, as the kindred form denotes, Psa 91:6. The Jews looked upon them as demons. So the Septuagint, , and hence devils, in our English Version. Deu 32:17. Compare 2Ki 16:3; 2 Corinthians 10:20
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 106:37. They sacrificed their sons, &c. It is very certain, that the sacrifices of these gods were indeed as cruel as they are here represented. Philastrius observes expressly, says Mr. Selden, that the Jews sacrificed their sons and daughters to devils, in the valley of Hinnom; and Porphry’s testimony is a very good one, on this point, especially as he produces it from Sanchoniathon, one of their own historians. “The Phoenicians, in the time of great calamities, such as war, pestilence, or famine, sacrificed some one of their best-beloved friends to Saturn; choosing him by lot; and the Phoenician history, which Sanchoniathon wrote in the Phoenician language, and which Philobiblius translated into Greek, is full of such accounts.” See Porph. de Abstin. lib. ii. Selden de Diis Syr. syntag. i. c. 6 and Jer 19:4-5.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 106:37 Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
Ver. 37. Yea, they sacrificed their sons, &c. ] The devils are here called Shedim, destroyers (in opposition to Shaddai, the Almighty), and worthily; for they make it their work to waste and spoil people of their dearest children, as here, of their precious souls, with the blood whereof they do daily glut themselves.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
devils = demons. Compare Deu 32:17.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
they sacrificed: However unnatural and horrid human sacrifices may appear, it is certain, that they did not only exist, but almost universally prevailed in the heathen world, especially among the Canaanites and Phoenicians. Deu 12:30, Deu 12:31, Deu 18:10, 2Ki 16:3, 2Ki 17:17, 2Ki 21:6, Isa 57:5, Jer 7:31, Jer 32:35, Eze 16:20, Eze 16:21, Eze 20:26, Eze 23:37, Eze 23:47
devils: Lev 17:7, Deu 32:17, 2Ch 11:15, 1Co 10:20, Rom 9:20
Reciprocal: Lev 18:21 – pass through 2Ki 3:27 – offered him 2Ch 28:3 – burnt Jer 2:34 – Also Jer 19:5 – to burn Eze 20:31 – ye offer Eze 36:17 – they defiled Act 15:20 – from pollutions Rev 9:20 – worship Rev 13:4 – And they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
106:37 Yea, they sacrificed their {u} sons and their daughters unto devils,
(u) He shows how monstrous a thing idolatry is, which can win us to things abhorring to nature, while God’s word cannot obtain small things.