With the pure, you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.
Parallel Translations
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With the pure, you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.
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With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.
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(18-27) With the pure Thou dost show Thyself pure; and with the crooked Thou dost show Thyself subtle.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Psalms 18:26 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 3:34 Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.
- Leviticus 26:23-24 “ ‘If by these things you won’t be turned back to me, but will walk contrary to me, then I will also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.
- James 2:13 For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- Leviticus 26:27-28 “ ‘If you in spite of this won’t listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in wrath. I will also chastise you seven times for your sins.
- Psalms 109:17-19 Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn’t delight in blessing, and it was far from him. He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment. It came into his inward parts like water, like oil into his bones. Let it be to him as the clothing with which he covers himself, for the belt that is always around him.
- Romans 2:4-6 Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God; who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:”
- Romans 2:9 oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The last clause of the 26th verse, where it…
The last clause of the 26th verse, where it is said, With the perverse thou wilt show thyself perverse, seems to convey a meaning somewhat strange, but it does not imply any thing absurd; yea, rather, it is not without good reason that the Holy Spirit uses this manner of speaking; for he designs thereby to awaken hypocrites and the gross despisers of God, who lull themselves asleep in their vices without any apprehension of danger. “Qui s’endorment en leurs vices sans rien craindre.” — Fr.
“Comme s’il disoit que leur obstination et opiniastrete sera cause que luy de son coste oubliant sa moderation et douceur accoustumee, se jettera le tors et a travers contre eux.” — Fr.
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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 18:26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself…
Psa 18:26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.
Ver. 26. With the pure, &c.] Cum candido candide agere soles. The pure shall have all that heart can wish.
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And with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward] Or, thou wilt wrestle, viz. with such cross pieces, as proudly and perversely err from thy precepts, as it were, on purpose to thwart thee, or to try masteries with thee. Against such stubborn persons God threateneth not eight degrees (which are the highest notes in music and degrees in qualities, as the philosopher distinguisheth them), but twenty and eight degrees of wrath, Lev 26:18; Lev 26:21; Lev 26:24; Lev 26:28. Exiget ab iis rationem minutissimorum, saith R. Obad. Gaon upon this text; he will reckon with them for their least offences, and not bate them an ace of their due punishment. He will pay them home in their own coin, over shoot them in their own bow, fill them with their own ways, be as cross as they are, for the hearts of them; yet still in a way of justice, though he break the necks of them in wrestling, and send them packing to their place in hell. Ainsworth rendereth it, With the froward thou wilt show thyself wry. It is a similitude taken from wrestlers, and noteth a writhing of one’s self against an adversary. Compare herewith Deu 32:5. They are a perverse and crooked generation (the same two words that are here in this text); the latter importeth, that they wriggled and writhed after the manner of wrestlers that wave up and down, and wind the other way, when one thinks to have them here or there. But all will not serve their turn to save them from punishment. God will be sure to meet with them, his word will lay hold on them, and their sin shall find them out.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Pure; free from the least mixture or appearance of…
Pure; free from the least mixture or appearance of unrighteousness, or unfaithfulness, or unkindness; or simply and sincerely, such as thou usest and hast promised to be to them that are such; for
purity is oft put for sincerity.
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Froward, or perverse, i.e. thou wilt cross him, and walk contrary to him, as thou hast threatened, Lev 26:23,24. See also Pro 3:34. Man’s perverseness here is moral and sinful, but God’s perverseness is judicial and penal.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For thou wilt save the afflicted people,.... As the…
For thou wilt save the afflicted people,.... As the people of God commonly are; they are afflicted with sin, and the corruption of their own hearts, and with Satan and his temptations, and with the world, its reproaches, and persecutions; but God in his own time saves them out of them, if not here, yet hereafter. This is particularly and eminently true of the Christians who lived between the crucifixion of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem; who were greatly afflicted and persecuted by the Jews, but were in a remarkable manner saved a little before the destruction of Jerusalem, by being directed to go out of it to a place called Pella (c); so that not one Christian suffered in it;
but wilt bring down high looks; or proud men, whom God humbles; these he abhors, resists, sets himself against, scatters and destroys. The Jews were a very proud people, and behaved in an insolent and insulting manner towards Christ and his followers; but the high looks of the chief priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, were brought down to a purpose, when their city, temple, and nation, were destroyed; see Isa 2:11.
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(c) Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 3. c. 5.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Pure - Free from the least mixture or appearance…
Pure - Free from the least mixture or appearance of unrighteousness, or unfaithfulness. Froward - Thou wilt cross him and walk contrary to him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 26. With the froward] עקש ikkesh, the perverse…
Verse 26. With the froward] עקש ikkesh, the perverse man; he that is crooked in his tempers and ways.
Thou wilt show thyself froward.] תתפתל tithpattal, thou wilt set thyself to twist, twine, and wrestle. If he contend, thou wilt contend with him. Thou wilt follow him through all his windings; thou wilt trace him through all his crooked ways; untwist him in all his cunning wiles; and defeat all his schemes of stubbornness, fraud, overreaching, and deceit.
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My old Psalter has, With the wiked thow sal be wike. Here the term wicked is taken in its true original sense, crooked, or perverse. With the wiked, the perverse, thou wilt show thyself wike, i.e., perverse; from [Anglo-Saxon], to draw back, to slide. As he draws back from thee, thou wilt draw back from him. It may, as before intimated, come from [A.S.], to seek for enchantments; leaving God, and going to devils; to act like a witch: but here it must mean as above. The plain import is, "If thou perversely oppose thy Maker, he will oppose thee: no work or project shall prosper that is not begun in his name, and conducted in his fear."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain With the pure - Those who are pure in…
With the pure - Those who are pure in their thoughts, their motives, their conduct.
Thou wilt show thyself pure - They will find that they have to deal with a God who is himself pure; who loves purity, and who will accompany it with appropriate rewards wherever it is found.
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And with the froward - The word used here - עקשׁ ‛iqqêsh - means properly perverse; a man of a perverse and wicked mind. It is derived from a verb - עקשׁ ‛âqash - which means, to turn the wrong way, to wrest, to pervert. It would be applicable to a man who perverts or wrests the words of others from their true meaning; who prevaricates or is deceitful in his own conduct; who is not straightforward in his dealings; who takes advantage of circumstances to impose on others, and to promote his own ends; who is sour, harsh, crabbed, unaccommodating, unyielding, unkind. It is rendered perverse in Deu 32:5; Pro 8:8; Pro 19:1; Pro 28:6; froward here, and in 2Sa 22:27; Psa 101:4; Pro 11:20; Pro 17:20; Pro 22:5; and crooked in Pro 2:15. The word does not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Thou wilt show thyself froward - Margin, wrestle. In the corresponding place in 2Sa 22:27 it is rendered, “Thou wilt show thyself unsavory;” though the same word is used in the original. In the margin in that place, as here, the word is wrestle. The original word in each place - פתל pâthal - means to twist, to twine, to spin; and then, to be twisted; to be crooked, crafty, deceitful. In the form of the word which occurs here (Hithpael), it means, to show oneself crooked, crafty, perverse. (Gesenius, Lexicon). It cannot mean here that God would assume such a character, or that he would be crooked, crafty, perverse in his dealings with men, for no one can suppose that the psalmist meant to ascribe such a character to God; but the meaning plainly is, that God would deal with the man referred to according to his real character: instead of finding that God would deal with them as if they were pure, and righteous, and merciful, such men would find that he deals with them as they are - as perverse, crooked, wicked.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain froward--contrary to.
froward--contrary to.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 26. With the pure &c.] Lit. one who purifies…
26. With the pure &c.] Lit. one who purifies himself, cp. 1Jn_3:3. Cp. Psa_24:4, Psa_73:1. Mat_5:8 is the N.T. commentary on the words.
and with the froward &c.] Better, as R.V., and with the perverse thou wilt shew thyself froward. The ‘perverse’ man, whose character is morally distorted, is given over by God to follow his own crooked ways, till they bring him to destruction. God must needs be at cross purposes with the wicked, frustrating their plans, and punishing their wickedness. See Lev_26:23-24; Job_5:12-13; Isa_29:9 ff.; Pro_3:34; Rom_1:28; Rev_22:11; and for an illustration camp. the history of Balaam (Num_22:20.).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (26) Froward . . . froward.—The use of this…
(26) Froward . . . froward.—The use of this one word to render two different Hebrew terms is so far correct, as they both come from roots meaning primarily to twist. Both are combined in Pro_8:8, “froward (margin, twisted) or perverse,” and both are contrasted with “righteousness.” Plainly the metaphor might apply-either to the character itself, “twisted round,” “awry,” “perverse,” or to the line of conduct pursued, “bent,” “crooked,” or “wrong,” the opposite of “straight,” or “right.” “Froward” =from ward (opposite to “toward”), seems to have more of the latter idea, but may combine both—a disposition turned away from good. The poet therefore says, “God will turn away from those who turn away from him,” a thought which even with the Christian revelation we must admit true, for still it is true that—
“He that shuts love out, in turn shall be
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Shut out from love.”—TENNYSON.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and…
With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward; rather, thou wilt show thyself adverse. The same root is not here used for the verb as for the adjective, as is done in the three preceding clauses. The reason is well explained in the "Speaker"s Commentary:" "In dealing with the good, God shows his approval by manifesting attributes similar or identical in essence; in dealing with the wicked, he exhibits attributes which are correlative in just proportion to their acts," but not identical. God cannot "show himself froward he can only show himself opposed, antagonistic, an adversary. What the psalmist means to say is that, if men oppose and thwart God, he in return will oppose and thwart them. But they will act in a perverse spirit, he in a spirit of justice and righteousness.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 26. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself…
Ver. 26. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. The sinner's frowardness is sinful and rebellious, and the only sense in which the term can be applied to the Most Holy God is that of judicial opposition and sternness, in which the Judge of all the earth will act at cross purposes with the offender, and let him see that all things are not to be made subservient to wicked whims and wilful fancies. Calvin very forcibly says, "This brutish and monstrous stupidity in men compels God to invent new modes of expression, and as it were to clothe himself with a different character." There is a similar sentence in Le 26:21-24, where God says, "and if ye walk contrary unto (or perversely with) me, then I will also walk contrary unto (or perversely, or roughly, or at random with) you." As if he had said that their obstinacy and stubbornness would make him on his part forget his accustomed forbearance and gentleness, and cast himself recklessly or at random against them. We see then what the stubborn at length gain by their obduracy; it is this, that God hardens himself still more to break them in pieces, and if they are of stone, he causes them to feel that he has the hardness of iron. The Jewish tradition was that the manna tasted according to each man's mouth; certainly God shows himself to each individual according to his character.
Ver. 26. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure, etc. But doth the Lord take colour from every one he meets, or change his temper as the company changes? That's the weakness of sinful man: he cannot do so with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of changing. God is pure and upright with the unclean and hypocritical, as well as with the pure and upright, and his actions show him to be so. God shows himself froward with the froward when he deals with him as he hath said he will deal with the frowarddeny them and reject them. God shows himself pure with the pure, when he deals with them as he hath said he willhear them and accept them. Though there be nothing in purity and sincerity which deserveth mercy, yet we cannot expect mercy without them. Our comforts are not grounded upon our graces, but our comforts are the fruits or consequences of our graces. Joseph Caryl.
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Ver. 26. The froward one. Here, as in the first promise, the two combatants stand contrastedthe seed of the woman and the serpent the benignantly bountiful, perfect, pure One, and the froward one, whose works he came to destroy, and who made it his great business to circumvent him whom he feared. The literal meaning of the word is "tortuous, "or "crooked, "and both the ideas of perversity and cunning which the figure naturally suggests, are very applicable to "that old serpent the devil." From the concluding part of the sentence, I think there is no doubt that it is the latter idea that is intended to be conveyed. God cannot deal perversely with any one; but he outwits the wise, and takes the cunning in their own craftiness. John Brown.
Ver. 26. With the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward. The Hebrew word in the root signifieth to wrest or writhe a thing, or to wrest or turn a thing, as wrestlers do their bodies. Hence by a trope, it is translated often to wrestle, because a cunning man in wrestling, turns and winds his body, and works himself in and out every way, to get an advantage of his adversary any way; therefore your cunning headed men, your crafty men, are fitly presented under this word; they are like wrestlers who turn and wind themselves in and out, and lie for all advantages; or as we speak, they "lie at catch." A man knows not where to have them, or what they mean when they speak plainest, or swear solemnest; when we think we see their faces, we see but their vizards; all their promises and performances too are under a disguise... And this word is applied to the Lord himself, "With the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward; "that is, if men will be winding and turning, and thinking to catch others, or over reach the Lord himself with tricks and turnings of wit, the Lord will meet and answer them in their own kind; he can turn as fast as they, he can put himself into such intricate labyrinths of infinite wisdom and sacred craft, as shall entangle and ensnare the most cunning wrestler or tumbler of them all. He will Cretize the Cretians, supplant the supplanters of his people. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 26. Wilt shew thyself froward. It is a similitude taken from wrestlers, and notes a writhing of one's self against an adversary. Compare herewith De 32:5. "They are a perverse and a crooked generation, "the same two words that are here in this text; the latter imports that they wriggled and writhed after the manner of wrestlers that wave up and down, and wind the other way, when one thinks to have him here or there. But all will not serve their turn to save them from punishment. God will be sure to meet with them, his Word will lay hold on them, and their sins shall find them out. John Trapp.
Ver. 26. Echoes, in providence, grace, and judgment.
Psalms 18:27*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 18:26 The pure have clean hands (see 18:20-24). •…
18:26 The pure have clean hands (see 18:20-24). • to the crooked you show yourself shrewd: The Lord knows each person’s character, and he justly responds to them in kind.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.