Back to Psalms 94

Psalms 94:7-9

They say, “Yah will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”

Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise?

He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear? He who formed the eye, won’t he see?

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    They say, “Yah will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”

    Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise?

    He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear? He who formed the eye, won’t he see?

  • KJV King James Version

    Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

    Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?

    He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

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  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    And they say: 'The LORD will not see, neither will the God of Jacob give heed.'

    Consider, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye understand?

    He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?

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Cross-references (28)

  • Exodus 4:11 (v9) Yahweh said to him, “Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yahweh?
  • Jeremiah 23:23-24 (v9) “Am I a God at hand,” says Yahweh, “and not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh.…
  • Psalms 92:6 (v8) A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this:
  • Psalms 11:4 (v9) Yahweh is in his holy temple. Yahweh is on his throne in heaven. His eyes observe. His eyes examine the children of men.
  • Psalms 44:21 (v9) won’t God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
Show all 28 cross-references
  • Proverbs 20:12 (v9) The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Yahweh has made even both of them.
  • Titus 3:3 (v8) For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating…
  • Psalms 49:10 (v8) For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.
  • Psalms 139:1-12 (v9) Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You search…
  • Psalms 10:11-13 (v7) He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.” Arise, Yahweh! God, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the…
  • Luke 18:3-4 (v7) A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’ He wouldn’t for a while, but afterward he said…
  • Deuteronomy 32:29 (v8) Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
  • Psalms 17:3 (v9) You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not…
  • Proverbs 12:1 (v8) Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.
  • Isaiah 27:11 (v8) When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding.…
  • Romans 3:11 (v8) There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.
  • Psalms 73:22 (v8) I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you.
  • Proverbs 8:5 (v8) You simple, understand prudence! You fools, be of an understanding heart!
  • Isaiah 29:15 (v7) Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”
  • Jeremiah 8:6-8 (v8) I listened and heard, but they didn’t say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Everyone turns to…
  • Jeremiah 10:8 (v8) But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
  • Zephaniah 1:12 (v7) It will happen at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are settled on their dregs, who say in…
  • Job 22:12-13 (v7) “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are! You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the…
  • Psalms 59:7 (v7) Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For”, they say, “who hears us?”
  • Proverbs 1:22 (v8) “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?
  • Ezekiel 8:12 (v7) Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery?…
  • Ezekiel 9:9 (v7) Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full…
  • Proverbs 20:1 (v9) Wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

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 vv7–8 7. And they have said, God shall not see…

7. And they have said, God shall not see When the Psalmist speaks of the wicked as taunting God with blindness and ignorance, we are not to conceive of them as just exactly entertaining this imagination of him in their hearts, but they despise his judgments as much as if he took no cognisance of human affairs. Were the truth graven upon men’s hearts that they cannot elude the eye of God, this would serve as a check and restraint upon their conduct. When they proceed to such audacity in wickedness as to lay the hand of violence upon their fellow-creatures, to rob, and to destroy, it shows that they have fallen into a state of brutish security in which they virtually consider themselves as concealed from the view of the Almighty. This security sufficiently proves at least, that they act as if they never expected to be called to an account for their conduct. Though they may not then be guilty of the gross blasphemy of asserting in so many words that God is ignorant of what goes forward in the world, a mere nothing in the universe — the Psalmist very properly charges them with denying God’s providential government, and, indeed, avowedly stripping him of the power and function of judge and governor, since, if they really were persuaded as they ought of his superintending providence, they would honor him by feeling a reverential fear — as I have elsewhere observed at greater length. He intends to express the lowest and most abandoned stage of depravity, in which the sinner casts off the fear of God, and rushes into every excess. Such infatuated conduct would have been inexcusable even in heathens, who had never heard of a divine revelation; but it was monstrous in men who had been brought up from infancy in the knowledge of the word, to show such mockery and contempt of God.

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 vv7, 9 He showeth that they are desperate in malice, forasmuch…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Psa 94:7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Their impunity and prosperity in their impious and barbarous…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Yet they say, the Lord shall not see,.... The…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv7, 9 Of Jacob - He who takes that name to…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Verse 7. The Lord shall not see] This was…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v8 Psa 94:8-9. Understand, ye brutish — Hebrew, בערים, bognarim;…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Yet they say - By their conduct; or, they…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7. They say, The Lord shall not see—This, and…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7. And they say, Jah doth not see,
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–8 (7) The Lord.—In original, “Jah.” This carelessness of heaven…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Yet they say, The Lord shall not see. (comp.…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Ver. 7. Yet they say, the Lord shall not…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv7, 9 Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v8 General Information:
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7–9 94:7 The wicked think that they can get away…
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