Psalms 106:38 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Psalms 106:38
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.
to spill forth (blood · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
innocent
נָקִ֡יna.Ki
H5355
innocent · adjective, masculine singular absolute
blood
דָ֪םdam
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · noun, common masculine singular absolute
blood
דַּםdam-
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · noun, common masculine singular construct
sons
בְּנֵ֘יהֶ֤םbe.Nei.Hem
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
daughters
וּֽבְנוֹתֵיהֶ֗םu.ve.no.tei.Hem
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
sacrificed
זִ֭בְּחוּZi.be.chu
H2076
to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice) · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person common plural
idols
לַעֲצַבֵּ֣יla.'a.tza.Bei
H6091
an (idolatrous) image · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
Canaan
כְנָ֑עַןkhe.Na.'an
H3667
Kenaan · proper noun, a place name
land
הָ֝אָ֗רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
polluted
וַתֶּחֱנַ֥ףva.te.che.Naf
H2610
to soil · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
blood
בַּדָּמִֽיםba.da.Mim
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Numbers 35:33 So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed t…
Deuteronomy 21:9 So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.
2 Kings 21:16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Juda…
Isaiah 26:21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her b…
2 Kings 24:4 And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.
Isaiah 1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of…
Isaiah 24:5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlast…
Jeremiah 2:34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 106:34–end
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 (Psa 106:34); when they had got the good land God had promised them they had no zeal against the…
And shed innocent blood,.... The blood of innocent persons; not that any of Adam's posterity, descending from him by ordinary generation, are strictly and properly innocent, or free from sin; self-righteous persons have thought themselves, touching the righteousness of the law, blameless; and some perfectionists have pretended to be free from sin, but are not such; they who are justified by the righteousness of Christ, and washed in his blood, are, so considered, all fair and without spot; are without fault before the throne, and unreproveable in the sight of God: but, considered in themselves, are not without sin; only the man Christ Jesus is perfectly holy and free from sin, being born of…
Psalm 106:32-39
32. And they provoked him to anger at the waters of strife [263] , and it turned out ill to Moses on their account: 33. For they grieved his spirit, [264] so that he spake with his lips. 34. They did not destroy the nations whom Jehovah had commanded them: 35. But were mingled with [265] the heathen, and learned their works. 36. And served their idols: which were the occasion of their overthrow. 37. And sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils, 38. And they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was defiled with blood. 39. And they were polluted with their own works, and went a whoring…
The Church Fathers
But what is it that follows? "And the land was slain with bloods." We might suppose that this was a mistake of the writer, and that he had written interfecta for infecta, were it not for the goodness of God, who has willed His Scriptures to be written in many languages; were it not that we see it written as in the text in many Greek copies which we have inspected; "the land was slain with bloods." What means then, "the land was slain," unless this be referred to the men who dwelt in the land, by a metaphorical expression....For they themselves were slaying their own souls when they offered up their sons, and when they shed the blood of infants who were far from consent to this crime: whence it is said, "They shed innocent blood." "The land" therefore "was slain with bloods, and defiled by their works" [Psalm 106:39], since they themselves were slain in soul, and defiled by their works; "and they went a whoring after their own inventions." By inventions are meant what the Greeks call ἐ πιτηδεύματα: for this word does occur in the Greek copies both in this and a former passage, where it is said, "They provoked Him to anger with their own inventions;" "inventions" in both instances signifying what they had initiated others in. Let no man therefore suppose inventions to mean what they had of themselves instituted, without any example before them to imitate. Whence other translators in the Latin tongue have preferred pursuits, affections, imitations, pleasures, to inventions: and the very same who here write inventions, have elsewhere written pursuits. I chose to mention this, lest the word inventions, applied to what they had not invented, but imitated from others, might raise a difficulty.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Alleluia — The Greek form (Rev. 19:1, 3, 4, 6) of the Hebrew Hallelujah = Praise ye Jehovah, which begins or ends several of the psalms (106, 111, 112, 113, etc.).
Alliance And Society With The Enemies Of God · Have led to murder and human sacrifice — Have led to murder and human sacrifice
Blood · Shedding of human: Defiling to the land — Shedding of human: Defiling to the land
Canaanites, The · Israel ensnared by — Israel ensnared by
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Marked by constant murmurings and rebellions — Marked by constant murmurings and rebellions
Idolatry · .Human sacrifices — .Human sacrifices
Murder · Defiles the: Land — Defiles the: Land
Sins, National · Defile: The land — Defile: The land
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
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 (שׁדים, Deu 32:17) delight in. Thus then the land was defiled by blood…
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. This was being snared indeed; they were spell bound by the cruel superstition, and were carried so far as even to become murderers of their own children, in honour of the most detestable deities, which were rather devils than gods. "And shed innocent blood." The poor little ones whom they put to death in sacrifice had not been partakers of their sin, and God looked with the utmost indignation upon the murder of the innocent. "Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan." Who knows how far evil will go? It dro…
