Psalms 106:38
in Psalms 106They shed innocent blood— the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
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.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Psalms 106
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThe first plague was of blood, by which idolaters were struck, because the Psalm says of them: "They poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan."
This site's exposition
They did not destroy the peoples
on Psalms 106:34-39
They left alive the peoples the LORD had commanded them to destroy. They mingled with the nations, took their customs and idols, and sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons, which Deuteronomy 12:31 and 18:10 had forbidden. The land was polluted with blood.
This site's exposition
They shed innocent blood
Numbers 35:33 had warned that bloodshed pollutes the land, and polluted here is the same Hebrew verb. Jeremiah 19:4 and 5 speaks of a place filled with the blood of the innocent and of sons burned as offerings to Baal. The gift of the land was defiled.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"Yea, they offered their sons and their daughters unto devils" [Psalm 106:37]; "and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they offered unto the idols of Canaan" [Psalm 106:38]. That history does not relate that they offered their sons and daughters to devils and idols; but neither can that Psalm lie, nor the Prophets, who assert this in many passages of their rebukes. But the literature of the Gentiles is not silent respecting this custom of theirs.
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 Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
That pleasant land, that holy land, was rendered uncomfortable to themselves, and unfit to receive those kind tokens of God's favour and presence in it which were designed to be its honour. [2.] They wronged their consciences (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
And shed innocent blood,....
They shed innocent blood, the most innocent, for it was infant-blood, nay, it was the blood of their sons and their daughters. See the power of the spirit that works in the children of disobedience, and see his malice.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
The words behind it
13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיִּֽשְׁפְּכ֨וּ | vaiyishpekhu | and they shed | H8210 → | 114 times |
| דָ֪ם | dam | blood | H1818 → | 360 times |
| נָקִ֡י | naki | innocent | H5355 → | 43 times |
| דַּם־ | dam- | [the] blood of | H1818 → | 360 times |
| בְּנֵ֘יהֶ֤ם | beneihem | sons their | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| וּֽבְנוֹתֵיהֶ֗ם | uvenoteihem | and daughters their | H1323 → | 588 times |
| אֲשֶׁ֣ר | ʾasher | whom | H834 → | 5497 times |
| זִ֭בְּחוּ | zibechu | they sacrificed | H2076 → | 134 times |
| לַעֲצַבֵּ֣י | laatzabei | to [the] idols of | H6091 → | 17 times |
| כְנָ֑עַן | khenaan | Canaan | H3667 → | 94 times |
| וַתֶּחֱנַ֥ף | vatechenaf | and it was polluted | H2610 → | |
| הָ֝אָ֗רֶץ | haaretz | the land | H776 → | 2504 times |
| בַּדָּמִֽים׃ | badamim | by the blood<s> | H1818 → | 360 times |
וַיִּֽשְׁפְּכ֨וּand they shed
vaiyishpekhuH8210 →114 times
דָ֪םblood
damH1818 →360 times
נָקִ֡יinnocent
nakiH5355 →43 times
דַּם־[the] blood of
dam-H1818 →360 times
בְּנֵ֘יהֶ֤םsons their
beneihemH1121 →4930 times
וּֽבְנוֹתֵיהֶ֗םand daughters their
uvenoteihemH1323 →588 times
אֲשֶׁ֣רwhom
ʾasherH834 →5497 times
זִ֭בְּחוּthey sacrificed
zibechuH2076 →134 times
לַעֲצַבֵּ֣יto [the] idols of
laatzabeiH6091 →17 times
כְנָ֑עַןCanaan
khenaanH3667 →94 times
וַתֶּחֱנַ֥ףand it was polluted
vatechenafH2610 →
הָ֝אָ֗רֶץthe land
haaretzH776 →2504 times
בַּדָּמִֽים׃by the blood<s>
badamimH1818 →360 times
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
Numbers 35:33Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the…
it leads to
- Luke 11:50–51
As a result, this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world,
- Genesis 9:6
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
- Luke 11:50–51
Through
2 Kings 21:16Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end, in addition to the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, doing evil in the sight of the…
it leads to
- Numbers 35:33
Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Numbers 35:33
Through
Isaiah 26:21For behold, the LORD is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.
it leads to
- Jude 1:14–15
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about them: “Behold, the Lord is coming with myriads of His holy ones
- Revelation 6:9–11
And when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had upheld.
- Isaiah 13:11
I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless.
- Isaiah 18:4
For this is what the LORD has told me: “I will quietly look on from My dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
- Job 16:18
O earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry for help never be laid to rest.
- Jude 1:14–15
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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; Bonaventure, Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 7; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.