“demons.” The Hebrew word is shed (#07700 שֵׁד), and means “demons.” The Greeks who translated the Septuagint understood that and translated shed into Greek as daimonion (#1140 δαιμόνιον), “demon,” an evil spirit being. The BDB Hebrew lexicon says that shed is a loanword from the Assyrian šêdu, a protecting spirit, and that Psalm 106:37, which says the people sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons, is referring to human sacrifice. Putting Psalm 106:36-37 together leads us to conclude that the “idols” people worshiped were actually demons, and that is also what Paul said in 1 Cor. 10:20.

The ancient peoples understood there were many types of demons. Leviticus 17:7 mentions “goat demons.”