Bible Strands
Psalms 106:37
They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist recounts Israel’s historical apostasy to the worshiping community, detailing their descent into covenant betrayal. The passage occurs within a liturgical recitation of national sins that triggered divine judgment.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיִּזְבְּח֣וּ (va.yizz.be.chu) translates as "they sacrificed," paired with לַ/שֵּֽׁדִים (la./she.dim), literally "to demons." These terms explicitly identify the recipients of Israel’s child offerings as supernatural entities rather than Yahweh.
The thread — This practice of child sacrifice to foreign deities recurs in 2 Kings 16:3, 2 Kings 17:17, and Deuteronomy 32:17. Each citation links the act to covenant violation and the subsequent corruption of the land.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that idolatry escalates to the destruction of the covenant community’s future. It requires the reader to trace spiritual compromise directly to tangible, irreversible harm.
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
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 16:3 Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
- 2 Kings 17:17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
- Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear.
- Jeremiah 7:31 They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.
- Deuteronomy 12:30 be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”
- Ezekiel 23:37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols.
- Leviticus 17:7 They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons to which they have prostituted themselves. This will be a permanent statute for them for the generations to come.’
- Deuteronomy 18:10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,
- 2 Kings 21:6 He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
- Isaiah 57:5 who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?