Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Chronicles 5:25

"And they trespassed against the God of their fathers, and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God destroyed before them." — 1 Chronicles 5:25 (ASV)

They transgressed against the God of their fathers. —Rather, they were faithless or untrue to Him (Joshua 7:1, committed a trespass).

Went a whoring after the gods of the people (peoples).—Jehovah was the true Lord (Ba’al) and Husband (Ish) of Israel. Apostasy from Him is, in the prophetic language, whoredom. (See 1 Chronicles 1:2; 1 Chronicles 1:2; especially 1 Chronicles 2:16; and 1 Chronicles 3.) According to Kings 50100, the fatal sin of Israel became evident:

1. In the worship of the high places;
2. In adoration of the heavenly bodies and the productive powers of nature;
3. In the practice of magic and divination.

The people of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. —Compare Numbers 21:21-35, Joshua 12:6, and Psalms 135:10-12. The subjugation of the Canaanites was, to the mind of the chronicler, a Divine work. He is not thinking only of such extraordinary events as were told of the battle of Beth-horon (Joshua 10:11–14). All the incidents of the conquest were the Lord’s doing, whether He acted through the agency of sun and moon, or storm and tempest, or the good swords of Joshua and his warriors.

From the same standpoint, he ascribes the Assyrian invasions to a direct impulse from the God of Israel (1 Chronicles 5:26). The Assyrian kings themselves were accustomed to regard their campaigns as a fulfillment of the command of their Divine protectors, Ishtar, Bel, and other imaginary beings. It was not given to them to attain to the higher vision of the Hebrew prophets and priests, who saw but one guiding and controlling power at the summit of the world. (Compare Isaiah 10:5-15.)