Back to Psalms 50

Psalms 50:9-15

I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.

For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.

I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.

Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.

    For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.

    I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.

    If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

    Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

    Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.

    Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

  • KJV King James Version

    I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.

    For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

    I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

    If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

    Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

    Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

    And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

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  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds.

    For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

    I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are Mine.

    If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof.

    Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

    Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High;

    And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt honour Me.'

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Examined in Scripture Analysis

Science (1)

Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.

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Contradictions (2)

Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.

  • Who owns the earth?
  • Does God desire animal sacrifices?

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Cross-references (83)

  • Psalms 107:28 (v15) Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distress.
  • Psalms 91:15 (v15) He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honor him.
  • Psalms 34:3-4 (v15) Oh magnify Yahweh with me. Let’s exalt his name together. I sought Yahweh, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
  • Zechariah 13:9 (v15) I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will…
  • Psalms 107:19 (v15) Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, he saves them out of their distresses.
Show all 81 cross-references
  • Hebrews 13:15 (v14) Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his…
  • Psalms 81:7 (v15) You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah.”
  • James 5:13 (v15) Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises.
  • Psalms 56:12 (v14) Your vows are on me, God. I will give thank offerings to you.
  • Psalms 107:6-13 (v15) Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses, he led them also by a straight way, that they…
  • Job 22:27 (v15) You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows.
  • Deuteronomy 23:21 (v14) When you vow a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not be slack to pay it, for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it would be…
  • Luke 22:44 (v15) Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
  • 2 Chronicles 33:12-13 (v15) When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him; and he was…
  • Psalms 107:21-22 (v14) Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men! Let them offer the sacrifices of…
  • Matthew 5:16 (v15) Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
  • Luke 17:15-18 (v15) One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him…
  • John 15:8 (v15) “In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.
  • Acts 16:25 (v15) But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
  • Psalms 22:23 (v15) You who fear Yahweh, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him! Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel!
  • Psalms 77:2 (v15) In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.
  • Psalms 50:23 (vv14–15) Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”
  • Psalms 116:12-14 (v14) What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh’s name. I will pay my vows…
  • 1 Peter 4:14 (v15) If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed; because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part he is…
  • Exodus 19:5 (v12) Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all…
  • Psalms 66:13-20 (v15) I will come into your temple with burnt offerings. I will pay my vows to you, which my lips promised, and my mouth spoke, when I was in…
  • 1 Peter 2:5 (v14) You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God…
  • 1 Peter 4:11 (v15) If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in…
  • Psalms 76:11 (v14) Make vows to Yahweh your God, and fulfill them! Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared.
  • Hosea 14:2 (v14) Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.
  • Deuteronomy 10:14 (v12) Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven, the heaven of heavens, and the earth, with all that is therein.
  • Psalms 24:1-2 (v12) The earth is Yahweh’s, with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell in it. For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on…
  • Romans 12:1 (v14) Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your…
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (v14) In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.
  • Psalms 69:30-31 (v14) I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that…
  • Psalms 147:1 (v14) Praise Yah, for it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and fitting to praise him.
  • 1 Corinthians 10:26-28 (v12) for “the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.” But if one of those who don’t believe invites you to a meal, and you are inclined to go,…
  • Job 41:11 (v12) Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.
  • Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 (v14) When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow. It is better that you should not…
  • Jeremiah 27:5-6 (v10) ‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give…
  • Micah 6:6-8 (v9) How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year…
  • 1 Peter 2:9 (v14) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
  • Psalms 115:15-16 (v12) Blessed are you by Yahweh, who made heaven and earth. The heavens are Yahweh’s heavens, but he has given the earth to the children of men.
  • Psalms 116:17-18 (v14) I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on Yahweh’s name. I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of…
  • Nahum 1:15 (v14) Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for the…
  • Numbers 30:2-16 (v14) When a man vows a vow to Yahweh, or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all…
  • Psalms 8:6-8 (v10) You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet: All sheep and cattle, yes, and the animals of the…
  • Psalms 104:14 (v10) He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:
  • Matthew 6:26 (v11) See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of…
  • Genesis 1:20-22 (v11) God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” God created the…
  • Leviticus 27:2-34 (v14) “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘When a man consecrates a person to Yahweh in a vow, according to your valuation, your…
  • Psalms 22:25 (v14) My praise of you comes in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him.
  • Psalms 27:6 (v14) Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me. I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises…
  • Psalms 65:1 (v14) Praise waits for you, God, in Zion. Vows shall be performed to you.
  • Psalms 104:24-25 (v10) Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches. There is the sea, great and wide, in…
  • Daniel 2:38 (v10) Wherever the children of men dwell, he has given the animals of the field and the birds of the sky into your hand, and has made you rule…
  • Acts 17:25 (v9) He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
  • Hebrews 10:4-6 (v9) For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t…
  • Psalms 69:31 (v9) It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs.
  • Isaiah 43:23-24 (v9) You have not brought me any of your sheep for burnt offerings, neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you…
  • Genesis 8:17 (vv10, 12) Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on…
  • Genesis 1:24-25 (v10) God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;”…
  • Genesis 1:28-30 (v12) God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the…
  • Genesis 2:19 (v10) Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would…
  • 1 Chronicles 29:14-16 (v10) But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and we have given…
  • Job 39:26-30 (v11) “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and…
  • Psalms 61:8 (v14) So I will sing praise to your name forever, that I may fulfill my vows daily.
  • Psalms 145:15-16 (v12) The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season. You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
  • Jonah 4:11 (v10) Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between…
  • Luke 12:24 (v11) Consider the ravens: they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you…
  • Genesis 1:11-12 (v12) God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the…
  • Genesis 9:2-3 (v10) The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the…
  • Genesis 31:9 (v10) Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me.
  • Job 39:13-18 (v11) “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly; but are they the feathers and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in…
  • Job 40:15-24 (v10) “See now, behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox. Look now, his strength is in his thighs. His force is in the…
  • Psalms 104:12 (v11) The birds of the sky nest by them. They sing among the branches.
  • Psalms 104:24 (v12) Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
  • Psalms 147:9 (v11) He provides food for the livestock, and for the young ravens when they call.
  • Isaiah 56:9 (v11) All you animals of the field, come to devour, all you animals in the forest.
  • Ezekiel 14:15-16 (v11) “If I cause evil animals to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it is made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of…
  • Matthew 10:29-31 (v11) “Aren’t two sparrows sold for an assarion coin? Not one of them falls on the ground apart from your Father’s will, but the very hairs of…

81 distinct cross-references across this passage (83 total citations).

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 vv9, 14, 15 9 I will take no calf out thy house…

9 I will take no calf out thy house Two reasons are given in this and the succeeding verses to prove that he cannot set any value upon sacrifices. The first is, that supposing him to depend upon these, he needs not to be indebted for them to man, having all the fullness of the earth at his command; and the second, that he requires neither food nor drink as we do for the support of our infirm natures. Upon the first of these he insists in the ninth and three following verses, where he adverts to his own boundless possessions, that he may show his absolute independence of human offerings. He then points at the wide distinction betwixt himself and man, the latter being dependent for a frail subsistence upon meat and drink, while he is the self-existent One, and communicates life to all beside. There may be nothing new in the truths here laid down by the Psalmist; but, considering the strong propensity we have by nature to form our estimate of God from ourselves, and to degenerate into a carnal worship, they convey a lesson by no means unnecessary, and which contains profound wisdom, that man can never benefit God by any of his services, as we have seen in Psalm 16:2, “My goodness extendeth not unto thee.” In the second place, God says that he does not require any thing for his own us but that, as he is sufficient in his own perfection, he has consulted the good of man in all that he has enjoined. We have a passage in Isaiah to a similar effect,

“The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? For all these things hath mine hand made.” — (Isaiah 66:1, 2,)

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In these words

God asserts his absolute independence; for while the world had a beginning, he himself was from eternity. From this it follows, that as he subsisted when there was nothing without him which could contribute to his fullness, he must have in himself a glorious all-sufficiency.

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 vv10, 13, 14 Though he did delight in sacrifice, yet had he…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–15 Psa 50:9 I will take no bullock out of…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–15 But be not so vain and foolish as to…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–15 I will take no bullock out of thy house,....…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 14, 15 Bullock - Be not so foolish, as to imagine…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv10, 12, 13, 14 Verse 10. Every beast of the forest is mine]…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv14–15 Psa 50:14. Offer unto God thanksgiving — If thou…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9–15 I will take no bullock out of thy house…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv13–15 13. Will I eat the flesh of bulls—Such gross…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–15 11. The wild beasts of the field] A peculiar…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 14 (9-18) Notice the fine tone of irony that pervades…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9–15 I will take no bullock out of thy house,…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv9–15 Ver. 9. I will take no bullock out of…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv12, 14, 15 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee:…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 12, 14 areas surrounded by walls in which sheep and goats…
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 10, 14, 15 50:9 Unlike pagan gods, God does not need food;…
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