They were yet ready to go to school to the filthy Canaanites!
(Charles Spurgeon, "Treasury of David")
"But they mingled among the heathen, and learned their customs!" Psalm 106:35
When they settled in the land of promise, Israel found evil company and delighted in it. Those whom they should have destroyed, they made their friends. Having enough faults of their own, they were yet ready to go to school to the filthy Canaanites and educate themselves still more in the arts of iniquity. It was certain that they could learn no good from men whom the Lord had condemned to utter destruction. Israel sat at the feet of accursed Canaan, and rose up proficient in every abomination.
This, too, is a grievous but common error among professors. They court worldly company and copy worldly fashions, and yet it is their calling to bear witness against these things. None can tell what evil has come to the church, because of the folly of worldly conformity!
"And they served their idols, which were a snare unto them." Psalm 106:36
They were fascinated by the charms of idolatry, though it brings misery upon its votaries. A man cannot serve sin without being ensnared by it. It is like pitch, and to touch it is to be beslimed by it. Samson laid his head in the Philistine woman's lap-but before long he woke up shorn of his strength. Dalliance with sin is fatal to holy living.