Psalms 106:29
in Psalms 106So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thus they provoked him to anger with their doings; And the plague brake in upon them.
KJV
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.
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This verse in Psalms 106
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them. Open licentiousness and avowed idolatry were too gross to be winked at. This time the offences clamoured for judgment, and the judgment came at once. Twenty-four thousand persons fell before a sudden and deadly disease which threatened to run through the whole camp. Their new sins brought on them a disease new to their tribes. When men invent sins God will not be slow to invent punishments.
This site's exposition
yoked themselves to Baal of Peor
on Psalms 106:28-31
At Peor they yoked themselves to Baal and ate what was offered to lifeless gods. That is Numbers 25: a plague broke out, and it stopped. Phinehas stood and intervened, and verse 31 credits the act to him as righteousness, the words Genesis 15:6 uses of Abram's faith.
This site's exposition
a plague broke out among them
Numbers 25:9 counts twenty four thousand dead in the plague. Paul remembers the same plague at 1 Corinthians 10:8, where twenty three thousand fell in one day. The deeds that provoked the LORD to anger are the sacrifices to Baal of Peor in verse 28.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Thus they provoked Him to anger with their own inventions; and destruction was multiplied among them" (ver. 29). As if He had deferred the lifting up of His hand which was to cast them down in the desert, and to cast out their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands; as the Apostle saith: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." "Destruction," therefore, "was multiplied among them," when they were heavily punished for their heavy sins.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions,.... Sin is an invention of man's: when our first parents sinned, they found out many inventions; and their posterity ever since have been inventors of evil things; and man's invention is very quick at that work. All false doctrine and false worship are of men's finding out; all idolatrous practices are their inventions, and which are here intended; see Psa 106:
(2.) By stirring up Phinehas to use his power as a magistrate for the suppressing of the sin and checking the contagion of it. He stood up in his zeal for the Lord of hosts, and executed judgment upon Zimri and Cozbi, sinners of the first rank, genteel sinners; he put the law in execution upon them, and this was a service so pleasing to God that upon it the plague was stayed,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
sacrifices of the dead--that is, of lifeless idols, contrasted with "the living God" (Jer 10:3-10; compare Ps 115:4-7; On the words, joined themselves to Baal-peor--see Nu 25:2, 3, 5. Baal-peor--that is, the possessor of Peor, the mountain on which Chemosh, the idol of Moab, was worshipped, and at the foot of which Israel at the time lay encamped (Nu 23:28).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions - The word rendered “inventions” means properly “works; deeds;” then it is used in the sense of “evil” deeds, crimes. And the plague brake in upon them - See Num 25:8-9. No less than twenty-four thousand fell in the plague. Num 25:9.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַ֭יַּכְעִיסוּ | vaiyakhisu | and they provoked to anger | H3707 → | 54 times |
| בְּמַֽעַלְלֵיהֶ֑ם | bemaaleihem | by deeds their | H4611 → | 41 times |
| וַתִּפְרָץ־ | vatifrotz- | and it broke out | H6555 → | 49 times |
| בָּ֝֗ם | bam | among them | ||
| מַגֵּפָֽה׃ | magefah | a plague | H4046 → |
וַ֭יַּכְעִיסוּand they provoked to anger
vaiyakhisuH3707 →54 times
בְּמַֽעַלְלֵיהֶ֑םby deeds their
bemaaleihemH4611 →41 times
וַתִּפְרָץ־and it broke out
vatifrotz-H6555 →49 times
בָּ֝֗םamong them
bam
מַגֵּפָֽה׃a plague
magefahH4046 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Corinthians 10:8We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.
it leads to
- Numbers 25:1–9
While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,
- 1 Corinthians 6:18
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual…
- Revelation 2:14
But I have a few things against you, because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food…
- Numbers 25:1–9
Through
Ecclesiastes 7:29Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
it leads to
- Jeremiah 4:22
“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
- Genesis 6:11–12
Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence.
- Mark 7:8–9
You have disregarded the commandment of God to keep the tradition of men.”
- Titus 3:3
For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
- Jeremiah 4:22
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 106; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 5; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.