They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood.
Parallel Translations
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They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood.
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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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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.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Psalms 106:38 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Numbers 35:33 “ ‘So you shall not pollute the land where you live; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it.
- Deuteronomy 21:9 So you shall put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes.
- 2 Kings 21:16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; in addition to his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.
- Isaiah 26:21 For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.
- 2 Kings 24:4 and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahweh would not pardon.
- Isaiah 1:15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
- Isaiah 24:5 The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.
- Jeremiah 2:34 Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You didn’t find them breaking in, but it is because of all these things.
- Ezekiel 7:23 “ ‘Make chains; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
- Ezekiel 22:3 You shall say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “A city that sheds blood within herself, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile her!
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (8 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 38. And they shed He inveighs with still greater…
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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 106:38 And shed innocent blood, [even] the blood…
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?
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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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Innocent blood; the blood of their children, who, though…
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.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thus were they defiled with their own works,.... Not…
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.
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(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.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And shed innocent blood ... - The blood of…
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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 38. Human sacrifices, the horror of which was intensified…
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (38) Innocent blood.—Human sacrifice, and especially that of children,…
(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.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their…
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.