Psalms 106:34 - Exposition

They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them. This is reckoned as another sin. Israel, once comfortably settled in Palestine, with sufficient room for its numbers, did not carry out the Divine command to "destroy," or "cast out," the Canaanitish nations, but was content to share the land with them. "The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem" ( 1:21 ); "neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns; nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns" ( 1:27 ); "neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer" ( 1:29 ); nor "Zebulon the inhabitants of Kitten, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol" ( 1:30 ); "neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho" ( 1:31 ); nor "Naphtali the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath" ( 1:33 ); nor Dan the Amorites, who "would dwell in Mount Heros in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim" ( 1:35 ). It was not compassion that restrained them, but love of ease, idleness, one of the seven deadly sins; and the results were those described in the next verse.