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Psalms 119:103-105

How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!

Through your precepts, I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!

    Through your precepts, I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

    Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.

  • KJV King James Version

    How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

    Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.

    Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Show all 3 translations
  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    How sweet are Thy words unto my palate! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

    From Thy precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

    NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

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Cross-references (27)

  • Proverbs 6:23 (v105) For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
  • Psalms 43:3 (v105) Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, to your tents.
  • Psalms 18:28 (v105) For you will light my lamp, Yahweh. My God will light up my darkness.
  • 2 Peter 1:19 (v105) We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and…
  • Job 29:3 (v105) when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,
Show all 27 cross-references
  • Psalms 19:8 (v105) Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes.
  • Ephesians 5:13 (v105) But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
  • Proverbs 8:11 (v103) For wisdom is better than rubies. All the things that may be desired can’t be compared to it.
  • Psalms 19:10 (v103) They are more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.
  • Proverbs 24:13-14 (v103) My son, eat honey, for it is good, the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste; so you shall know wisdom to be to your…
  • Psalms 119:128 (v104) Therefore I consider all of your precepts to be right. I hate every false way.
  • Proverbs 8:13 (v104) The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.
  • Psalms 63:5 (v103) My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,
  • Job 23:12 (v103) I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
  • Proverbs 14:12 (v104) There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
  • Psalms 97:10 (v104) You who love Yahweh, hate evil! He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
  • Psalms 119:98 (v104) Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me.
  • Psalms 101:3 (v104) I will set no vile thing before my eyes. I hate the deeds of faithless men. They will not cling to me.
  • Psalms 119:100 (v104) I understand more than the aged, because I have kept your precepts.
  • Romans 12:9 (v104) Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good.
  • Proverbs 3:17 (v103) Her ways are ways of pleasantness. All her paths are peace.
  • Amos 5:15 (v104) Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of…
  • Matthew 7:13 (v104) “Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it.
  • Psalms 36:4 (v104) He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn’t abhor evil.
  • Psalms 119:29-30 (v104) Keep me from the way of deceit. Grant me your law graciously! I have chosen the way of truth. I have set your ordinances before me.
  • Song of Solomon 5:1 (v103) I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have…
  • Song of Solomon 1:2-4 (v103) Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine. Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is oil…

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (17 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv103–105 103. O how sweet have been thy words to…

103. O how sweet have been thy words to my palate! He again repeats what he had previously stated in different words, that he was so powerfully attracted by the sweetness of the Divine Law, as to have no desire after any other delight. It is possible that a man may be affected with reverence towards the Law of God; but no one will cheerfully follow it, save he who has tasted this sweetness. God requires from us no slavish service: he will have us to come to him cheerfully, and this is the very reason why the prophet commends the sweetness of God’s word so often in this psalm. If it is demanded in what sense he declares that he took such sweet delight in God’s Law, which, according to the testimony of Paul, (1 Corinthians 3:9,) does nothing else but strike fear into men, the solution is easy: The prophet does not speak of the dead letter which kills those who read it, but he comprehends the whole doctrine of the Law, the chief part of which is the free covenant of salvation. When Paul contrasts the Law with the Gospel, he speaks only of the commandments and threatening. Now if God were only to command, and to denounce the curse, the whole of his communication would, undoubtedly, be deadly. But the prophet is not here opposing the Law to the Gospel; and, therefore, he could affirm that the grace of adoption, which is offered in the Law, was sweeter to him than honey; that is to say, that no delight was to him equal to this. What I have previously said must be remembered, that the Law of God will be unsavory to us, or, at least, that it will never be so sweet to us, as to withdraw us from the pleasures of the flesh, until we have struggled manfully against our own nature, in order to subdue the carnal affections which prevail within us.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v105 Of ourselves we are but darkness and cannot see…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv103–105 Psa 119:103 How sweet are thy words unto my…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv103–105 The study and obedience of thy words yields me…
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv103, 105 Here is, 1. The wonderful pleasure and delight which…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv103–105 I am afflicted very much,.... In a temporal sense,…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv103–105 Verse 103. Sweeter than honey to my mouth!] What…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv103, 105 Psa 119:103-104. How sweet are thy words to my…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv103–105 How sweet are thy words unto my taste ...…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v105 נ, Nun.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv103–105 103. Cp. Psa_19:10; Job_23:12; Joh_4:32; Joh_4:34.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v105 (105) See Pro_6:23.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv103–105 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! (comp.…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv103–105 Ver. 103. How sweet are thy words into my…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv103, 105 How sweet are Thy words unto my taste! yea,…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv103, 105 How sweet are your words to my taste, yes,…
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv103, 105 119:103-104 Wisdom is preferable to even the finest food…
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