Psalm 106:35

Psalm 106:35, in plain English

Instead of staying separate and faithful to God, the Israelites intermarried with the surrounding nations and adopted their customs. They became like their neighbors instead of remaining distinct.

Why it's here

This is gradual spiritual erosion. It wasn't one big moment of rebellion; it was small choices—a marriage here, adopting a custom there—that slowly blended Israel into the surrounding culture. The customs they adopted included the religions and practices of the pagan nations, which meant slowly abandoning their covenant with God.

Who's speaking

The psalmist, describing the process of spiritual assimilation.

Where it sits in the story

This is a timeless warning about how compromise happens quietly. You don't usually fall away from God in one dramatic moment; you drift away through a thousand small compromises.

The scholarly reading

Rather than remaining separate, Israel mingled with and adopted Canaanite customs, erasing the boundary between God's people and the idolatrous nations they were called to displace.

Language and setting

The verbs וַיִּתְגָּרוּ (vayitgaru—mingled) and וַיִּלְמְדוּ (vayilmedu—learned) suggest both intimate association and pedagogical adoption. This is not involuntary cultural drift but deliberate assimilation. Deuteronomy's persistent concern with boundary maintenance—prohibitions on intermarriage, dietary laws, Sabbath-keeping—all aim to prevent exactly this erosion of Israel's distinct identity. The Septuagint's κατοικέω (katoikeo—dwelt among) makes the cohabitation explicit.

Voice

The psalmist, charting Israel's progressive syncretism through social integration.

Significance

This mingling represents Israel's failure to maintain covenantal distinctiveness; it is the mechanism by which idolatry infiltrates the community—not through external invasion but through domestic adoption.

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.

37They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

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.