Psalms 106:30-40

30 And Phinehas stood, and pleased God; and the vengeance ceased. (But then Phinehas stood up, and pleased God; and the plague ceased.)

31 And it was areckoned to him to rightfulness; in generation and into generation, till into without end. (And it was counted unto him as righteousness; throughout all generations, forever.)

32 And they wrathed God at the waters of against-saying; and Moses was travailed for them, that is, troubled in soul, (And then they angered God again, this time at the waters of Meribah; and Moses was travailed for them, that is, his soul was troubled over them/and Moses was in great trouble because of them,)

33 for they made bitter his spirit, and he parted in his lips. (for they made his spirit so bitter, that he spoke rashly with his lips.)

34 They lost not [the] heathen men; which the Lord said to them (to do). (And they did not destroy the heathen; which the Lord had commanded them to do.)

35 And they were meddled among heathen men, and learned the works of them; (Indeed, they were mixed in among the heathen, and learned all their ways;)

36 and served the graven images of them; and it was made to them into cause of stumbling. (and served their carved idols; and that became their falling, or their trap.)

37 And they offered their sons, and their daughters, to fiends. (And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters, to demons and to devils.)

38 And they shedded out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and of their daughters; which they sacrificed to the graven images of Canaan. And the earth was slain in bloods, (And so they shed innocent blood, the blood of their own sons and daughters; whom they sacrificed to the carved idols of Canaan. And the earth was polluted with their children's blood,)

39 and was defouled in the works of them; and they did fornication in their findings. (and they were defiled by their works; and they wantonly abandoned God with their deeds.)

40 And the Lord was wroth by strong vengeance against his people; and he had abomination of his heritage. (And the Lord grew more and more angry in his fury against his people; and he had abomination for his own inheritance.)

Psalms 106:30-40 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 106

This psalm is without the name of its author, as the Syriac interpreter observes. Aben Ezra, on Ps 106:47, says, that one of the wise men of Egypt (perhaps Maimonides) was of opinion that it was written in the time of the judges, when there was no king in Israel; and another, he says, thought it was written in Babylon: but he was of opinion it was wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, or by a prophetic spirit, concerning their present captivity; and so Kimchi. The petition in Ps 106:47, "gather us from among the Heathen", has led most interpreters to conclude that it was written either in the Babylonish captivity, or, as some, in the times of Antiochus: but by comparing it with 1Ch 16:7, it appears that it was written by David, at the time of the bringing up of the ark to Zion; since the first and two last verses of it are there expressly mentioned, in the psalm he gave Asaph to sing on that occasion, Ps 106:34-36, who therein might have respect to the Israelites that had been taken captive by some of their neighbours, as the Philistines, and still retained; though there is no difficulty in supposing that David, under a prophetic spirit, foresaw future captivities, and represents those that were in them. As the preceding psalm treats of the mercies and favours God bestowed upon Israel, this of their sins and provocations amidst those blessings, and of the goodness of God unto them; that notwithstanding he did not destroy them from being a people; for which they had reason to be thankful.