“Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 106:39 Mean?
The psalmist delivers the verdict on Israel's idolatry: "Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions." The defilement is self-generated (their own works) and the infidelity is self-directed (their own inventions). The pollution isn't imported from outside. It's produced from within. Israel made the idols. Israel worshipped the idols. The contamination is homemade.
The word "defiled" (tame — to be unclean, to be polluted, to be rendered unfit for God's presence) means the idol worship didn't just offend God. It contaminated the worshippers. The people who worshipped the idols became unclean — ritually, spiritually, and relationally unsuitable for approaching the Holy One.
The phrase "went a whoring" (zanah — to commit adultery, to be sexually unfaithful, to prostitute oneself) maintains the marriage metaphor: Israel's relationship with God is a marriage, and the idol worship is adultery. The infidelity isn't with an external lover — it's with "their own inventions." They cheated on God with things they made up themselves.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What 'inventions of your own' might be sources of spiritual defilement?
- 2.How does the marriage metaphor ('went a whoring') intensify the offense of homemade idolatry?
- 3.What does the self-inflicted nature (nobody forced this) teach about the voluntariness of spiritual contamination?
- 4.Where are you worshipping something you fabricated — your own creation rather than your Creator?
Devotional
Defiled by their own works. Cheating on God with their own inventions. The contamination and the infidelity are both self-generated. Nobody did this to them. They did it to themselves.
The 'own works' and 'own inventions' identify the source of the pollution as internal: Israel made the idols they worshipped. The golden calf wasn't imported from Egypt. It was manufactured in the wilderness from their own gold by their own hands. The high places weren't Canaanite installations forced on Israel. They were Israelite constructions built on Israelite hills. The defilement was homemade.
The 'went a whoring' maintains the marriage vocabulary that defines Israel's covenant with God. The relationship is marital. The idolatry is adultery. And the lover Israel chased wasn't even a real person — it was their own invention. They cheated on the living God with objects they fabricated. The adultery is with a fiction. The betrayal is for something that doesn't exist outside the betrayer's imagination.
The defilement (tame) means the idolatry didn't just anger God. It contaminated the worshippers. You can't worship death's idols and remain clean. You can't eat at death's table and maintain purity. The pollution transfers from the object to the worshipper. The idol makes the idolater unclean.
The self-inflicted nature is the verse's most devastating diagnosis: nobody forced the contamination. Nobody required the infidelity. Israel chose to make the idols, chose to worship them, chose to defile themselves with their own productions. The defilement wasn't imposed. It was selected. The whoring wasn't coerced. It was initiated.
What have you invented that's defiling you? What fiction of your own making are you worshipping instead of the living God?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people,.... Sin is the cause of wrath, which is compared to fire…
Thus were they defiled with their own works - By their very attempts to deliver themselves from sin. They were corrupt,…
Here, I. The narrative concludes with an account of Israel's conduct in Canaan, which was of a piece with that in the…
Cross References
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