We Sinned Like Our Fathers
They 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. Psalm 106:38 · Berean Standard Bible
The land itself became polluted by innocent blood spilled in these sacrifices. The Israelites had turned the Promised Land—God's gift—into a place of death and spiritual horror.
When the psalmist says the land was 'polluted with blood,' he's using language that recalls the effect of Cain's murder in Genesis. Innocent blood has a cry that rises to heaven and defiles the ground where it's shed. The Israelites had inherited a good land and turned it into a place of carnage and death through their idolatrous practices.
The psalmist, showing the physical and spiritual consequences of the people's choices.
The land itself becomes a character in the story—it was meant to be a place of blessing but became a place of curse because of the people's rebellion.
The innocent blood of children poured out in sacrifice literally polluted the land, making it ceremonially and morally impure through this violence perpetrated by those called to be God's holy people.
The verb שׁפַךְ דָּם (shafach dam—shed blood) is repeatedly used for murder throughout scripture; here it is systematized as religious practice. The concept of land pollution (וַתִּטְמָא הָאָרֶץ—vatiṭma ha-arets) carries cultic significance—blood defilement requires purification or creates ongoing impurity. Numbers 35:33-34 articulates the principle: blood defiles the land, and only the blood of the murderer can cleanse it. By systematizing child murder as religious practice, Israel transformed the promised land itself into spiritually contaminated space. Medieval theologians connected this to Cain's unrelenting curse (Genesis 4:10-11), where shed blood cries out from the ground.
The psalmist, depicting the material and spiritual consequences of child sacrifice—land pollution and ongoing defilement.
The land itself becomes corrupted through violence; it can no longer sustain the covenant relationship, setting the stage for exile as the necessary cleansing judgment.
36They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.
37They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
38They 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.
39They defiled themselves by their actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds.
40So the anger of the LORD burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.
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.
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