Bible Strands
Psalms 106:35
but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses a worshiping community recounting Israel’s post-Exodus history, marking the moment when commanded separation is abandoned. This verse records the immediate consequence of refusing to execute divine judgment on resident peoples.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיִּתְעָרְבוּ (va.yit‘arevu) literally means “they mixed themselves,” directly linked to מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם (ma‘asehem), “their deeds.” The text states they intermingled with surrounding populations and adopted their practices rather than maintaining distinct boundaries.
The thread — This assimilation pattern reappears when Israelites remain among Canaanite and related groups without displacement (Judges 3:5) and is later cited as a mechanism for moral decay (1 Corinthians 15:33; 1 Corinthians 5:6). The narrative thread tracks how sustained proximity to foreign systems replaces covenant fidelity.
Why it lands — The passage demands a deliberate boundary between covenant practice and surrounding cultural adoption. It requires readers to identify where institutional or personal proximity to opposing systems compromises stated allegiance.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
Cross-references
- Judges 3:5 Thus the Israelites continued to live among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
- 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
- 1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?
- Judges 1:27 At that time Manasseh failed to drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean, Taanach, Dor, Ibleam, Megiddo, and their villages; for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.
- Judges 2:2 and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’ Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?
- Isaiah 2:6 For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east; they are soothsayers like the Philistines; they strike hands with the children of foreigners.
- Joshua 15:63 But the descendants of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. So to this day the Jebusites live there among the descendants of Judah.