Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
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The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
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(34-17) The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Psalms 34:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 10:7 The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.
- Jeremiah 17:13 Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.
- Jeremiah 44:11 “Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.
- Leviticus 17:10 “ ‘Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
- Job 18:17 His memory will perish from the earth. He will have no name in the street.
- Amos 9:4 Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good.
- Leviticus 26:17 I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will flee when no one pursues you.
- Psalms 10:16 Yahweh is King forever and ever! The nations will perish out of his land.
- Ecclesiastes 8:10 So I saw the wicked buried. Indeed they came also from holiness. They went and were forgotten in the city where they did this. This also is vanity.
- Ezekiel 14:7-8 “ ‘ “For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel, who separates himself from me, and takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I Yahweh will answer him by myself. I will set my face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The anger of God doth not only destroy the…
The anger of God doth not only destroy the wicked, but also abolisheth their name forever.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 34:16 The face of the LORD [is] against…
Psa 34:16 The face of the LORD [is] against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
Ver. 16. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil] Let not such dream of a long and happy life, as Psa 34:12. This they are apt to do; but shall be carried from a fool’s paradise to a true prison. For that people may not imagine God to be μονοφθαλμαν, and so made up of mercy as to forget his judgments, the wicked are here assured, that the face of the Lord is against them, that he beholdeth them from heaven with a terrible countenance, that he is grievously angry with them, and will surely and severely punish them, and theirs after them.
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To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth] And so to cross them in the thing that they most coveted, viz. to renown themselves among men. God writeth them in the earth in opposition to those whose names are written in heaven, Luk 10:20, because they forsook the Lord, the fountain of living waters, Jer 17:13.
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 The face of the Lord, i.e. his anger, oft…
The face of the Lord, i.e. his anger, oft called his face, as Lev 17:10; 20:5; Jer 44:11; Lam 4:16, because anger discovers itself in the face.
Them that do evil, i.e. whose common course, and study, arid business it is to do evil; for else there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not, Ecc 7:20. To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth; utterly to deprive both them and their children of that worldly happiness, which is the only thing that they desire, and seek by their wicked courses.
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 The face of the Lord is against them that…
The face of the Lord is against them that do evil,.... Not against everyone that sins; for the righteous are not without sin; they have sin in them, and they do no good without it; but against them that live in sin, whose course of life is a series of wickedness, and they are workers of iniquity; and have no sense of sin, nor sorrow for it, go on in it without shame or fear; against these the face of the Lord is, he shows his resentment, and stirs up his wrath. For the Lord to be against a man is dreadful; a fearful thing it is to fill into his hands as a God of vengeance; there is no standing before him when once he is angry: and to have the face of God against a man is intolerable, when it is to destroy, and
to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth; so that they shall be no more thought of, nor spoken of, but with contempt and reproach; an everlasting mark of infamy being upon their names; see Pro 10:7.
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 The face - His anger, which discovers itself in…
The face - His anger, which discovers itself in the face.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The face of the Lord - This phrase is…
The face of the Lord - This phrase is synonymous with that in the previous verse: “The eyes of the Lord.” The meaning is, that the righteous and the wicked are alike under the eye of God; the one for protection, the other for punishment. Neither of them can escape His notice; but at all times, and in all circumstances, they are equally seen by Him.
Is against them that do evil - The wicked; all that do wrong. In the former verse the statement is, that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, that is, for their protection; in this case, by a change of the preposition in the original, the statement is, that His face is “against” them that do evil, that is, He observes them to bring judgment upon them.
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To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth - To cut off themselves, - their families - and all memorials of them, so that they shall utterly be forgotten among people. Compare Psa 109:13-15. So, in Pro 10:7, it is said, “The memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot.” Two things are implied here:
(1) That it is “desirable” to be remembered after we are dead. There is in us a deep-rooted principle, of great value to the cause of virtue, which prompts us to “desire” that we may be held in grateful recollection by mankind after we have passed away; that is, which prompts us to do something in our lives, the remembrance of which the world will not “willingly let die.” - Milton.
(2) The other idea is, that there is a state of things on earth which has a tendency to cause the remembrance of the wicked to die out, or to make people forget them. There is nothing to make men desire to retain their recollection, or to rear monuments to them. People are indeed remembered who are of bad eminence in crime; but the world will forget a wicked man just as soon as it can. This is stated here as a reason particularly addressed to the young Psa 34:11 why they should seek God, and pursue the ways of righteousness. The motive is, that men will “gladly” retain the remembrance of those who are good; of those who have done anything worthy to be remembered, but that a life of sin will make men desire to forget as soon as possible all those who practice it. This is not a low and base motive to be addressed to the young. That is a high and honorable principle which makes us wish that our names should be cherished by those who are to live after us, and is one of the original principles by which God keeps up virtue in the world - one of those arrangements, those safeguards of virtue, by which we are prompted to do right, and to abstain from that which is wrong. It is greatly perverted, indeed, to purposes of ambition, but, in itself, the desire not to be forgotten when we are dead contributes much to the industry, the enterprise, and the benevolence of the world, and is one of the most efficacious means for preserving us from sin.
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 face . . . against--opposed to them (Lev 17:10;…
face . . . against--opposed to them (Lev 17:10; Lev 20:3).
cut off the remembrance--utterly destroy (Psa 109:13).
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 16. The face of the Lord means the manifestation…
16. The face of the Lord means the manifestation of His Presence, either as here in wrath (cp. Psa_9:3), or as in Num_6:25, in blessing. See Oehler’s O.T. Theology, § 57. Comp. “The Lord looked forth upon the host of the Egyptians … and discomfited them” (Exo_14:24).
the remembrance of them] Or, their memorial; even the name by which they might be remembered. Cp. Psa_9:5-6; Job_18:17. Contrast Psa_112:6.
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 (16) To cut off.—Notice the fear, so intense and…
(16) To cut off.—Notice the fear, so intense and recurring to the Semitic mind, of the extinction of race. (Comp. Psa_21:10; Job_18:17, &c)
This verse, according to the sense, should certainly change places with Psa_34:15. This would disarrange the acrostic, bringing pe before ayin; but, as in Lamentations 2, 3, 4 the same sequence of letters occurs, we are led to the conclusion that the order of the alphabet was not definitely or invariably fixed in respect of these two letters, a license intelligible enough when we remember that tsadde, which follows pe, was often interchanged with ayin, which precedes it.
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 The face of the Lord is against them that…
The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Conversely, God turns away his face from the wicked, anti punishes them by causing their very memory to perish from among men. (comp. Job_18:17 Psa_109:13 Pro_10:7) The natural wish for continuance, which causes men to build themselves monuments, and erect other great works, and delight in offspring, and seek to establish their families, and create entails, and have their portraits taken, and "call the lands after their own names", (Psa_49:11) was especially strong in the Hebrew race, and made the threat that their remembrance should be cut off peculiarly terrible to them.
God"s face.
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"The face" is the organ of expression. The thoughts, the feelings, the inward movements of the soul, show themselves by the face. Therefore "the lace" stands for the man; (Gen_48:11) and when God is spoken of after the manner of men, his face is put for himself. (Exo_33:14) The text is like the mystic pillar of the wilderness. It has two aspects. While God looks forth with love and favour towards his people, he shows himself as terrible to his enemies. (Exo_14:24) His face, wherever seen, is always against those who wilfully and wickedly persist in doing evil.
I GOD"S FACE IN NATURE IS AGAINST THEM THAT DO EVIL. There is law in nature. To obey the law is to conquer, to disobey is to suffer. As to transgressors, there is neither exception nor immunity. We see the stern, unbending severity of law in the awful passage, Pro_1:24-31.
II GOD"S FACE IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES IS AGAINST THEM THAT DO EVIL. Take the ten commandments, and from the first to the last it is the same. The Law is holy and just and good. It demands obedience from all, and denounces condemnation and wrath against transgressors, without respect of persons. The recorded judgments of God may be held as expressing the same thing. All through, from Genesis to Malachi, whether as respects nations or individuals, God"s face is against the evil-doer. In no part of Scripture is this brought out more vividly and forcibly than in the Psalms.
III GOD"S FACE, IN THE PERSON OF HIS SON AND OUR SAVIOUR, IS AGAINST THEM THAT DO EVIL. Christ, in his doctrine, his precepts, his example, and in his redemptive work, is wholly and for ever against sin. His object is to "take away sin," and to bring them that do evil to do good and to be the loving and obedient children of God, that they may walk in the light of God"s favour for ever. W.F.
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. 16. The face of the Lord is against…
Ver. 16. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil. God is not indifferent to the deeds of sinners, but he sets his face against them, as we say, being determined that they shall have no countenance and support, but shall be thwarted and defeated. He is determinately resolved that the ungodly shall not prosper; he sets himself with all his might to overthrow them. To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. He will stamp out their fires, their honour shall be turned into shame, their names forgotten or accursed. Utter destruction shall be the lot of all the ungodly.
Ver. 16. The evil man checkmated in life, and forgotten in death.
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Psalms 34:17*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.