Psalms 106:38

Psa 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.

Ver. 38. And shed innocent blood, &c.] This was furor Diabolicus; but what may not the devil do with his drudges, when God’s word cannot obtain the smallest things of us?

Whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan] Prompted thereunto by that old manslayer. This was practised by Manasseh, Ahaz, and others not a few, Jer 7:19 Eze 16:1-63 Haec atrocitas frequens apud gentes.

And the land was polluted with blood] Impiata est abominabilis reddita est quasi hypocrita. See Ezr 9:11. As a hypocrite is a fair professor, but a foul sinner, so here.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

38. (Psa 106:38) And they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, which they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and defiled was the land with bloods. The first verb means to pour out, and here implies a copious or abundant bloodshed, corresponding to the next verb, which is an intensive form of that used in Psa 106:37. Blood, in the singular, is used in a physical sense; the plural bloods, in a moral one, always implying guilt, and especially the guilt of murder. See above, on Psa 5:6; Psa 26:9; Psa 51:14, Leviticus 24 (23). The first three members of the sentence have respect to the prohibitions in Deu 12:31; Deu 18:10; Deu 19:10. With the last clause compare Num 35:33.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

38. And they shed He inveighs with still greater indignation against that religious phrensy which led them to sacrifice their own children, and thus to pollute the land by the shedding of innocent blood. Should any one object that Abraham is praised, because he did not withhold his only son, the answer is plain, That he did it in obedience to God’s command, so that every vestige of inhumanity was effaced by means of the purity of faith. For if obedience is better than sacrifice, (1 Samuel 15:22) it is the best rule both for morality and religion. It is an awful manifestation of God’s vindictive wrath, when the superstitious heathens, left to their own inventions, become hardened in deeds of horrid cruelty. As often as the martyrs put their life in jeopardy in defense of the truth, the incense of such a sacrifice is pleasing to God. But when the two Romans, by name Decii, in an execrable manner devoted themselves unto death, that was an act of atrocious impiety. It is not without just cause, therefore, that the prophet enhances the guilt of the people by this consideration, that to the perverse mode of worshipping God, they had added excessive cruelty. Nor is there less cause for charging them with having polluted that land out of which God had commanded them to expel the ancient inhabitants, in order that he might render it the peculiar scene where he was to be worshipped. The Israelites then were doubly wicked, who, by not only defiling the land with their idolatry, but also by cruelly butchering their children, robbed God of his due, and in a manner frustrated his designs.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(38) Innocent blood.—Human sacrifice, and especially that of children, was a Canaanite practice. It seems to have been inherent in Phoenician custom, for Carthage was, two centuries after Christ, notorious for it. (See Sil. Ital., iv. 767.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

38. Human sacrifices, the horror of which was intensified by the tender age of the victims and their relation to the offerers, are mentioned as the climax of the abominations of the Canaanites (Deu_12:31; Deu_18:9-10), and of the Israelites who copied their ways (Eze_16:20-21; Eze_20:31).

the land was polluted with blood] Cp. Num_35:33-34; and for the thought of the defilement of a land by the sins of its inhabitants see Lev_18:24 ff.; Isa_24:5; Jer_3:1-2; Jer_3:9. The Canaanites had been condemned to extermination for their enormities; but Israel failed to take warning from their fate.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thus were they defiled with their own works,.... Not the land only, but they themselves also; or "with their works" (a), with the works of the Heathen they learned, Psa 106:35, or rather with their own works, the works of the flesh, especially their shocking idolatries: sin is of a defiling nature; it has defiled all men, it defiles all of men, all the faculties of their souls, and all the members of their bodies; nor can anything truly and thoroughly cleanse from it but the blood of Christ: even men's works of righteousness are as filthy rags and defiling, and much more their evil works.

And went a whoring with their own inventions; after other gods; idolatry is often in Scripture signified by whoredom; the idolatry of Israel and Judah is represented by two harlots and their lewd practices, in Eze 23:1 and hence the apostate church of Rome is compared to a whore, because of her idolatry, Rev 17:1.

(a) "operibus earum", Muis; so Ainsworth.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And shed innocent blood ... - The blood of those who had committed no crime; who did not “deserve” the treatment which they received. That is, they were sacrificed “as” innocent persons, and “because” it was believed that they “were” innocent: the pure for the impure; the holy for the unholy. It was on the general principle that a sacrifice for sin must be itself pure, or it could not be offered in the place of the guilty; that an offering made for one who had violated law must be by one who had “not” violated it. This was the principle on which “lambs” were offered in sacrifice. It is on this principle that the atonement for sin by the Lord Jesus was made; on this depend its efficacy and its value.

And the land was polluted with blood - That is, Either so much blood was thus poured out, that it might be said that the very land was polluted with it; or, the sin itself was so great, that it seemed to defile and pollute the whole land.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Innocent blood; the blood of their children, who, though sinners before God, yet were innocent as to them, from any crime deserving such barbarous usage from them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters. Infants, who could have committed no actual sin, were the ordinary victims in the Moloch sacrifices (see Jarchi on Jer_7:31; Diod. Sic., 20:14; Dollinger, "Judenthum und Heidenthum," 1:427, Engl. trans.). Whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan. Bloody offerings of this horrible kind were made, not only to Moloch, but also to Baal, (Jer_19:5) to Chemosh, (2Ki_3:27) and perhaps to other deities. And the land was polluted with blood. Contrary to the commandment given in Num_35:33, "Ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are." The "innocent blood" shed in the land is often declared to have been the especial cause of God"s anger against Israel, and of his final casting away of his inheritance. (2Ki_24:4 Isa_59:7 Jer_7:6 Jer_22:3, Jer_22:17, etc.)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.