Psalm 106:34

Psalm 106:34, in plain English

When God told the Israelites to completely destroy the pagan peoples living in Canaan, they didn't obey. They left some nations in place instead of following God's clear instruction.

Why it's here

You might find this passage troubling, and your discomfort is worth sitting with. The command to destroy the Canaanites was part of God's specific, historic plan to establish Israel as a people set apart from idolatry. Instead of obeying, the Israelites compromised and left some populations alive. Compromise led to the very thing God was trying to prevent.

Who's speaking

The psalmist, documenting Israel's failure to obey God's commands about the land.

Where it sits in the story

Throughout the book of Judges, you'll see that these people the Israelites failed to remove became constant threats and temptations to idolatry. Disobedience creates ongoing problems.

The scholarly reading

Upon entering Canaan, Israel failed to obey God's command to dispossess the native peoples, instead leaving pockets of pagan populations that would become cultural and spiritual snares.

Language and setting

Joshua's conquest account records incomplete dispossession; Judges 1 systematically details which Canaanite populations remained. The Hebrew הִשְׁמִידוּ (hishmidu—destroy) is the term for herem—devoted destruction—a ritual consecration of enemies to God. By failing to execute this command fully, Israel disobeyed the divine war ethic, what scholars call 'holy war' ideology. Later commentators (Maimonides, Abarbanel) grappled with the moral difficulty of this command; modern Christian scholarship often reads it through the lens of Ancient Near Eastern conceptual frameworks rather than endorsing the practice.

Voice

The psalmist, indicting Israel's incomplete obedience regarding Canaanite dispossession.

Significance

This failure to complete dispossession sets up Israel's cycle of syncretism and idolatry throughout Judges—the nations Israel failed to destroy become the very agents of their spiritual corruption.

32At the waters of Meribah they angered the LORD, and trouble came to Moses because of them.

33For they rebelled against His Spirit, and Moses spoke rashly with his lips.

34They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them,

35but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

36They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.

Read all of Psalm 106 — The other side of Psalm 105. Israel's history retold through the lens of rebellion — yet God saved them again and again for His name's sake.