Psalm 106

This is the twin of the psalm before it. Psalm 105 tells the same history as a record of what God did right; this one tells it as a record of what Israel did wrong. Both were used in worship, and reciting a nation's failures out loud was a recognized act of public confession.

The golden calf is described as exchanging their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass. Bull images were everywhere in Egypt and Canaan — the Apis bull of Memphis was a living animal kept and worshiped, and Canaanite gods were pictured standing on a bull's back. Israel did not invent that idea in the desert; they brought it out of Egypt with them.

The incident at Baal-peor involved a Moabite festival with sacrificial meals and ritual sex. The phrase about eating the sacrifices of the dead points to feasts held for departed ancestors, a widespread practice in that world and one the Law of Moses flatly forbade.

The darkest line is about children sacrificed to the idols of Canaan and innocent blood polluting the land. That was not poetic exaggeration. Burned infant remains have been excavated at Carthage, a Phoenician colony, and Israel's own prophets describe the same rite happening in the valley south of Jerusalem.