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 Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv7–87. 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 translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9He showeth that they are desperate in malice, forasmuch…
He showeth that they are desperate in malice, forasmuch as they feared not God, but gave themselves wholly to do wickedly.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Psa 94:7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not…
Psa 94:7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard [it].
Ver. 7. Yet they say, The Lord shall not see] To all other their enormities they added this, that they denied a Divine providence, and professed profaneness. Irridendum vero, curam agere rerum humanarum illud quicquid est summum, saith Pliny, lib. 2, c. 7, delivering the sense of all other atheists.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Their impunity and prosperity in their impious and barbarous…
Their impunity and prosperity in their impious and barbarous practices make them ready to doubt of or to deny the providence of God in the government of his church and of the world. The God of Jacob; so they call him sarcastically; he who taketh that name to himself, but hath no regard to his people, but gives up his Jacob to the spoil, and to the rage of their enemies.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Yet they say, the Lord shall not see,.... The…
Yet they say, the Lord shall not see,.... The blood they shed, the murders they commit, the mischief they do, the wickedness they are guilty of, so flattering themselves with impunity; such atheism reigns at Rome, but God sees all their abominations, and he will let them know one day that he does behold them; see Psa 10:10,
neither shall the God of Jacob regard it; the same as before; this title of "the God of Jacob" may be considered either as put in by the psalmist, as an argument strengthening the faith of the church of God; that being their covenant God, he would take notice and care of them, and resent the injuries done them, and avenge them: or else as mentioned by their enemies, sneering at their confidence in God, whom they called their covenant God; that notwithstanding he would not regard or take any notice of what was done unto them, so as to appear in their behalf; all this has been said, if not openly with the mouth, yet secretly in the heart; the language of their actions has abundantly declared this gross atheism of antichrist, and his abettors, who are addressed as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9Of Jacob - He who takes that name to…
Of Jacob - He who takes that name to himself, but has no regard to his people.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Verse 7. The Lord shall not see] This was…
Verse 7. The Lord shall not see] This was either the language of infidelity or insult. Indeed, what could the Babylonians know of the true God? They might consider him as the God of a district or province, who knew nothing and did nothing out of his own territories.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v8Psa 94:8-9. Understand, ye brutish — Hebrew, בערים, bognarim;…
Psa 94:8-9. Understand, ye brutish — Hebrew, בערים, bognarim; ye who are governed by your lusts and appetites, as the word signifies; who have only the shape, but not the understanding, reason, or judgment of men in you, or are not directed and governed thereby; who, though you think yourselves the wisest of men, yet, in truth, are the most brutish of all people; he that planted the ear — The word planted (Hebrew, נשׂע, notang) is very emphatical, signifying the excellent structure of the ear, or of the several organs belonging to the sense of hearing, and the wise position of all those parts in their proper places; shall he not hear? — He must necessarily hear. The truth of the inference depends upon that evident and undeniable principle in reason, that nothing can give to another that which it hath not either formally or more eminently in itself, and that no effect can exceed the virtue of its cause. He that formed the eye, &c. — By the word formed, (Hebrew, יצר, jotzer, concerning which see note on Gen 2:7,) he seems to intimate the accurate and most curious workmanship of the eye, which is observed by all who write on the subject.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Yet they say - By their conduct; or, they…
Yet they say - By their conduct; or, they seem to say.
The Lord shall not see - In the original, יה Yâhh. This is an abbreviation of the word יהוה Yahweh. See Psa 68:4, note; Psa 83:18, note. On the impious sentiment here expressed, see the notes at Psa 10:11.
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Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it - Implying that God was indifferent to the conduct of people; that he would not punish the wicked; that sinners have nothing to fear at his hand. This sentiment is very common still, either as an article in their creed, or as implied in their conduct. The doctrine of universal salvation is really founded on this opinion; and most people ACT as if it were their belief that the wicked are in no danger of being punished, and that there is no such attribute in God as justice.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv7–97. They say, The Lord shall not see—This, and…
7. They say, The Lord shall not see—This, and the corresponding statement, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it, is a reproachful taunt upon the Hebrews, implying that their God has abandoned them to their enemies, and takes no further notice of the treatment they are receiving; equal to “Where is thy God?” in Psa_42:3; Psa_42:10. This alone could embolden them to such deeds of violence. How exactly does all this accord with the conduct of the Church’s persecutors in all ages.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–97. And they say, Jah doth not see,
7. And they say, Jah doth not see,
Neither doth the God of Jacob consider.
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They proclaim their contempt for Israel’s God as one who is either ignorant of the sufferings of His people or indifferent to them (Psa_10:11; Psa_10:13; Psa_59:7). He is in their estimation but one among many gods of the nations (Isa_36:18 ff.).
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–8(7) The Lord.—In original, “Jah.” This carelessness of heaven…
(7) The Lord.—In original, “Jah.” This carelessness of heaven to injustice and crime, which, in the mouth of the heathen (or, perhaps, of apostate Jews), appeared so monstrous to the Hebrews, was a doctrine of the philosophy of ancient times. It appears in the saying of Seneca: “Stoicus deus nec cor nec caput habet.” And in the Homeric hymn to Demeter men are represented as only enduring the gifts of the gods because they are stronger, and give only grudgingly. (Comp. Lucretius, 1:45.) The feeling has been well caught in Tennyson’s Lotus Eaters:
“Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,
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In the hollow Lotus-land to live and lie reclined,
On the hills like gods together, careless of mankind.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Yet they say, The Lord shall not see. (comp.…
Yet they say, The Lord shall not see. (comp. Psa_10:11, Psa_10:13) Foreign enemies did not suppose that Jehovah would not see, but trusted that their own gods were stronger than he, and would protect them. (2Ki_18:33-35) Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. "The God of Jacob" would not be a natural expression in the mouth of Israel"s foreign foes. They knew nothing of Jacob. But it was an expression frequently used by Israelites. (Gen_49:24 Psa_20:1 Psa_46:7 Psa_75:9 Psa_76:6 Psa_81:1, 4 Isa_2:3 Isa_41:21 Mic_4:2, etc.)
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. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Ver. 7. Yet they say, the Lord shall not…
Ver. 7. Yet they say, the Lord shall not see. This was the reason of their arrogance, and the climax of their wickedness: they were blindly wicked because they dreamed of a blind God. When men believe that the eyes of God are dim, there is no reason to wonder that they give full license to their brutal passions. The persons mentioned above not only cherished an infidel unbelief, but dared to avow it, uttering the monstrous doctrine that God is too far away to take notice of the actions of men.
Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Abominable blasphemy and transparent falsehood If God has actually become his people's God, and proved his care for them by a thousand acts of grace, how dare the ungodly assert that he will not notice the wrongs done to them? There is no limit to the proud man's profanity, reason itself cannot restrain him; he has broken through the bounds of common sense. Jacob's God heard him at the brook Jabbok; Jacob's God led him and kept him all his life long, and said concerning him and his family, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm; "and yet these brutish ones profess to believe that he neither sees nor regards the injuries wrought upon the elect people! Surely in such unbelievers is fulfilled the saying of the wise, that those whom the Lord means to destroy he leaves to the madness of their corrupt hearts.
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Ver. 7. They say, the Lord shall not see. As if they had said, Though God should set himself to search us out, and would greatly wish to see what we are doing, yet he shall not. We will carry it so closely and cunningly, that the eye of God shall not reach us. Their works were so foul and bloody, that the sun might be ashamed to look upon them, and they were so secret that they believed God could not look upon them, or bring them to shame for them. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 7. The LORD... the God of Jacob. The divine names are, as usual, significant. That the self existent and eternal God should not see, is a palpable absurdity; and scarcely less so, that the God of Israel should suffer his own people to be slaughtered without even observing it. The last verb means to mark, note, notice. J. A. Alexander.
Psalms 94:8*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither…
Psa_94:7-10
Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
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The absurdity of libertinism and infidelity
In the style of the sacred authors, particularly in that of our prophet, to deny the existence of a God, the doctrine of providence, and the essential difference between just and unjust, is one and the same thing (Psa_10:1-18; Psa_14:1-7; Psa_53:1-6).
1. If ye consider the discernment and choice of the people, of whom the prophet speaks, ye will see, that he had a great right to denominate them most brutish and foolish. What an excess must a man have attained, when he hates a religion, without which he cannot but be miserable!
2. Having taken the unbelieving libertine on his own interest, I take him on the public interest, and, having attacked his taste and discernment, I attack his policy. An infidel is a disturber of public peace, who, by undertaking to sap the foundations of religion, undermines those of society. Society cannot subsist without religion. Nor can worldly honour supply the place of religion. Finally. Human laws cannot supply the place of religion. To whatever degree of perfection they may be improved, they will always be imperfect in their substance, weak in their motives, and restrained in their extent.
3. The infidel carrieth his indocility to the utmost degree of extravagance, by undertaking alone to oppose all mankind, and by audaciously preferring his own judgment above that of the whole world, who, excepting a small number, have unanimously embraced the truths which he rejects.
4. Yet, as no man is so unreasonable as not to profess to reason, and as no man takes up a notion so eagerly as not to pique himself on having taken it up after a mature deliberation; we must talk to the infidel as to a philosopher, who always follows the dictates of reason, and argues by principles and consequences. Well, then! Let us examine his logic, or way of reasoning; his way of reasoning, ye will see, is his brutality, and his logic constitutes his extravagance. In order to comprehend this, weigh, in the most exact and equitable balance, the argument of our prophet (verses9, 10). These are, in brief, three sources of evidences, that supply the whole of religion with proof. The first are taken from the works of nature; He who planted the ear; He who formed the eye. The second are taken from the economy of Providence; He that chastizeth the heathen. The third are taken from the history of the Church; He that teacheth man knowledge. These arguments being thus stated, either our infidel must acknowledge that they, at least, render probable the truth of religion in general, and of this thesis in particular, God regardeth the actions of men: or he refuseth to acknowledge it. If he refuse to acknowledge it, then he is an idiot; and there remains no other argument to propose to him, than that of our prophet, Thou fool! When wilt thou be wise? But if the power and the splendour of truth force his consent, then, with the prophet, I say to him, O thou most brutish among the people!
5. Why? Because in comparing his logic with his morality I perceive that nothing but an excess of brutality can unite these two things.
6. I would attack the conscience of the libertine, and terrify him with the language of my text, He who teacheth man knowledge, shall not He correct? That is to say, He who gave you laws, shall not He regard your violation of them? The persons whom I attack, I am aware, have defied us to find the least vestige of what is called conscience in them.
7. Perhaps ye have been surprised that we have reserved the weakest of our attacks for the last. Perhaps ye object, that motives, taken from what is called politeness, and a knowledge of the world, can make no impressions on the minds of those who did not feel the force of our former attacks. It is not without reason, however, that we have placed this last. Libertines and infidels often pique themselves on their gentility and good breeding. Reason they think too scholastic, and faith pedantry. They imagine that, in order to distinguish themselves in the world, they must affect neither to believe nor to reason. Well, you accomplished gentlemen! do you know what the world thinks of you? The prophet tells you; but it is not on the authority of the prophet only, it is on the opinions of your fellow-citizens that I mean to persuade you. You are considered in the world as the most brutish of mankind. You live among people who believe a God, and a religion; among people who were educated in these principles, and who desire to die in these principles; among people who have many of them sacrificed their reputation, their ease, and their fortune to religion. Moreover, you live in a society the foundations of which sink with those of religion, so that were the latter undermined, the former would therefore be sunk. All the members of society are interested in supporting this edifice, which you are endeavouring to destroy. What is this but the height of rudeness, brutality, and madness? (J. Saurin.)
God and human misery
Whatever we think of it, there can, I think, be no doubt that the pressure of human misery has led many to doubt that there can be a God at all; and, if He exists, whether He can be as beneficent as He has been represented to be. Men simply say that if they were omnipotent they would not tolerate the wrongs that now smite, the evils that now destroy. They say that they could not tolerate it if they had only power to prevent it, but God, if He exists at all, and if He be all-powerful, seems to us as if He paid no heed, but restrains His power and lets the hideous carnival of misery go on from generation to generation. Now, let me say inferences on this line are often hasty, and obviously erring. Things are overlooked that must needs be considered if intelligent judgment is to be reached. I do not know, indeed, any explanation that removes every difficulty Concerning some things we can at best but yet see as through a glass darkly. Still, I want to mention some things that, in forming our judgment concerning God and His relation to human misery, should never be forgotten.
1. Wrong is very often done by the general ascription to God of all human misery. Men overlook what the Divine purpose of our Lord was, to declare the relation of God to the sin and woe of our race. We find in the world wheat and tares--that is indisputable; the tares are hurtful, deadly--yes, but whence came they? Not from God: He repudiates alike responsibility and blame. An enemy hath done this. The world is not as God wants it, not as God designed it, not as God seeks it shall yet become. He should not, therefore, be credited with, or blamed for that which men freely and wickedly do. Now, it is no reply to say that God should have made a race that could not sin. That is but the spluttering of human ignorance. God had a right, if He saw it wise, to create a race of moral beings; but moral being you cannot have without the possibility of sin. If the moral nature be given, then man may exercise his power in good or in evil. He can go up or go down, can do the one because he can do the other.
2. Wrong is often done by thinking of the misery that prevails as if it were undistributed. We are apt to think of the mass of suffering that we know exists as if it fell on one human heart. But no one bears it all. It falls on those who are countless in their multitude. Every heart knows its own sorrow, but no heart knows the sorrow of all other hearts. Each carries his own burden. Now, let us be honest and face the facts. We speak of human misery as crushing men and women. But should they be crushed by it? Have we a right to complain of misery as mastering us, if we do not take advantage of the grace by which God means us to master the misery? And then let us not overlook that into every life, however darkened, there comes some compensation. I have known a man declaim against God for creating a world like this, speak of it as hurtful and unfair and without interest; and within a few minutes he was in raptures over a painters reproduction of a very little bit of the earth or of the sea. I have known a man complain by the coffin of his child, but never thank God for the gift of that child, or for all the gladness the child meant to him during the years that it lived.
3. Wrong is often done by overlooking the slowness of moral progress. The cruel wrong that grieves and hurts is not, as I have pointed out, of God. He is against it, and He would have men to put it away from them. But then men are slow in responding to the Divine call. Of course we should have been far further on in progress than we are now, and we would have been if we had only been more responsive to God; but the selfishness that seeks to sway us all, the ignorance as to what is really our true interest, the absorption in the things that can be seen and felt--these have betrayed, and have prevented Gods will being done on earth as it is done in heaven. The wheels of the Gospel-chariot drag heavily, and wrongs that have hurt others still remain to hurt us, and some of them probably will remain to hurt generations yet to be. You say, Why does not God arise in His might, and lay all iniquity in the dust? Because He is God. That which you desire is not His method, cannot be, just because He is God. He deals with His children alike, the loyal and the rebellious, according to the nature which He has given them. He teaches, He draws, He allures from evil, and you can see the effect in the growing sensitiveness as to what we owe to our fellow-men. There are forces at work that must make for a fairer distribution of wealth; forces at work that must bring to an end the wide disparity between East and West.
4. Wrong is often done by overlooking that pain is often sanctified unto much good. Pain in itself is not an evil. Pain is but natures cry to men to give heed to avoid what is hurtful, and to follow that which is beneficent. God doth not afflict willingly the children of men, but in order that we may be made partakers of the Divine nature. There is always an uplift in our sadness, an uplift towards God and heaven.
5. Wrong unutterable is often done by overlooking the all-transforming and all-subduing grace that is put at our disposal the sorrow of life is too great for any one to bear alone, but no one is meant to bear it alone. God wants to carry our griefs for us; grace is revealed, grace that touches our common lot, grace that lightens our larger and our lesser griefs, grace that comes that through it we may attain even now unto the foretaste of heavenly blessedness. All things work together for good to them that love God. (G. Gladstone.)
A blind god wanted
A god or a saint that should really cast the glance of a pure eye into the conscience of the worshipper would not long be held in repute. The grass would grow again around that idols shrine. A seeing god would not do: the idolater wants a blind god. The first cause of idolatry is a desire in an impure heart to escape from the look of the living God, and none but a dead image would serve their turn. (W. Arnot D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v8General Information:
General Information:
The writer now instructs the wicked people.
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when will you ever learn?
This rhetorical question emphasizes the anger of the writer with the wicked people he is speaking to. This question can be translated as a statement. AT: "stop your foolish ways!" or "learn from your mistakes!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
He who made the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?
These rhetorical questions can be translated as statements or commands. AT: "God made ears, so he can hear. God made eyes, so he can see." or "God made ears, so stop acting as if he does not hear. God made eyes, so stop acting as if he does not see." (See: Rhetorical Question)
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…
He showeth that they are desperate in malice, forasmuch as they feared not God, but gave themselves wholly to do wickedly.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Psa 94:7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not…
Psa 94:7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard [it].
Ver. 7. Yet they say, The Lord shall not see] To all other their enormities they added this, that they denied a Divine providence, and professed profaneness. Irridendum vero, curam agere rerum humanarum illud quicquid est summum, saith Pliny, lib. 2, c. 7, delivering the sense of all other atheists.
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 On vv7–9 Their impunity and prosperity in their impious and barbarous…
Their impunity and prosperity in their impious and barbarous practices make them ready to doubt of or to deny the providence of God in the government of his church and of the world. The God of Jacob; so they call him sarcastically; he who taketh that name to himself, but hath no regard to his people, but gives up his Jacob to the spoil, and to the rage of their enemies.
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 On vv7–9 Yet they say, the Lord shall not see,.... The…
Yet they say, the Lord shall not see,.... The blood they shed, the murders they commit, the mischief they do, the wickedness they are guilty of, so flattering themselves with impunity; such atheism reigns at Rome, but God sees all their abominations, and he will let them know one day that he does behold them; see Psa 10:10,
neither shall the God of Jacob regard it; the same as before; this title of "the God of Jacob" may be considered either as put in by the psalmist, as an argument strengthening the faith of the church of God; that being their covenant God, he would take notice and care of them, and resent the injuries done them, and avenge them: or else as mentioned by their enemies, sneering at their confidence in God, whom they called their covenant God; that notwithstanding he would not regard or take any notice of what was done unto them, so as to appear in their behalf; all this has been said, if not openly with the mouth, yet secretly in the heart; the language of their actions has abundantly declared this gross atheism of antichrist, and his abettors, who are addressed as follows.
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 On vv7, 9 Of Jacob - He who takes that name to…
Of Jacob - He who takes that name to himself, but has no regard to his people.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Verse 7. The Lord shall not see] This was…
Verse 7. The Lord shall not see] This was either the language of infidelity or insult. Indeed, what could the Babylonians know of the true God? They might consider him as the God of a district or province, who knew nothing and did nothing out of his own territories.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v8 Psa 94:8-9. Understand, ye brutish — Hebrew, בערים, bognarim;…
Psa 94:8-9. Understand, ye brutish — Hebrew, בערים, bognarim; ye who are governed by your lusts and appetites, as the word signifies; who have only the shape, but not the understanding, reason, or judgment of men in you, or are not directed and governed thereby; who, though you think yourselves the wisest of men, yet, in truth, are the most brutish of all people; he that planted the ear — The word planted (Hebrew, נשׂע, notang) is very emphatical, signifying the excellent structure of the ear, or of the several organs belonging to the sense of hearing, and the wise position of all those parts in their proper places; shall he not hear? — He must necessarily hear. The truth of the inference depends upon that evident and undeniable principle in reason, that nothing can give to another that which it hath not either formally or more eminently in itself, and that no effect can exceed the virtue of its cause. He that formed the eye, &c. — By the word formed, (Hebrew, יצר, jotzer, concerning which see note on Gen 2:7,) he seems to intimate the accurate and most curious workmanship of the eye, which is observed by all who write on the subject.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Yet they say - By their conduct; or, they…
Yet they say - By their conduct; or, they seem to say.
The Lord shall not see - In the original, יה Yâhh. This is an abbreviation of the word יהוה Yahweh. See Psa 68:4, note; Psa 83:18, note. On the impious sentiment here expressed, see the notes at Psa 10:11.
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Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it - Implying that God was indifferent to the conduct of people; that he would not punish the wicked; that sinners have nothing to fear at his hand. This sentiment is very common still, either as an article in their creed, or as implied in their conduct. The doctrine of universal salvation is really founded on this opinion; and most people ACT as if it were their belief that the wicked are in no danger of being punished, and that there is no such attribute in God as justice.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7. They say, The Lord shall not see—This, and…
7. They say, The Lord shall not see—This, and the corresponding statement, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it, is a reproachful taunt upon the Hebrews, implying that their God has abandoned them to their enemies, and takes no further notice of the treatment they are receiving; equal to “Where is thy God?” in Psa_42:3; Psa_42:10. This alone could embolden them to such deeds of violence. How exactly does all this accord with the conduct of the Church’s persecutors in all ages.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7. And they say, Jah doth not see,
7. And they say, Jah doth not see,
Neither doth the God of Jacob consider.
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They proclaim their contempt for Israel’s God as one who is either ignorant of the sufferings of His people or indifferent to them (Psa_10:11; Psa_10:13; Psa_59:7). He is in their estimation but one among many gods of the nations (Isa_36:18 ff.).
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 On vv7–8 (7) The Lord.—In original, “Jah.” This carelessness of heaven…
(7) The Lord.—In original, “Jah.” This carelessness of heaven to injustice and crime, which, in the mouth of the heathen (or, perhaps, of apostate Jews), appeared so monstrous to the Hebrews, was a doctrine of the philosophy of ancient times. It appears in the saying of Seneca: “Stoicus deus nec cor nec caput habet.” And in the Homeric hymn to Demeter men are represented as only enduring the gifts of the gods because they are stronger, and give only grudgingly. (Comp. Lucretius, 1:45.) The feeling has been well caught in Tennyson’s Lotus Eaters:
“Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,
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In the hollow Lotus-land to live and lie reclined,
On the hills like gods together, careless of mankind.”
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 On vv7–9 Yet they say, The Lord shall not see. (comp.…
Yet they say, The Lord shall not see. (comp. Psa_10:11, Psa_10:13) Foreign enemies did not suppose that Jehovah would not see, but trusted that their own gods were stronger than he, and would protect them. (2Ki_18:33-35) Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. "The God of Jacob" would not be a natural expression in the mouth of Israel"s foreign foes. They knew nothing of Jacob. But it was an expression frequently used by Israelites. (Gen_49:24 Psa_20:1 Psa_46:7 Psa_75:9 Psa_76:6 Psa_81:1, 4 Isa_2:3 Isa_41:21 Mic_4:2, etc.)
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 On vv7–9 Ver. 7. Yet they say, the Lord shall not…
Ver. 7. Yet they say, the Lord shall not see. This was the reason of their arrogance, and the climax of their wickedness: they were blindly wicked because they dreamed of a blind God. When men believe that the eyes of God are dim, there is no reason to wonder that they give full license to their brutal passions. The persons mentioned above not only cherished an infidel unbelief, but dared to avow it, uttering the monstrous doctrine that God is too far away to take notice of the actions of men.
Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Abominable blasphemy and transparent falsehood If God has actually become his people's God, and proved his care for them by a thousand acts of grace, how dare the ungodly assert that he will not notice the wrongs done to them? There is no limit to the proud man's profanity, reason itself cannot restrain him; he has broken through the bounds of common sense. Jacob's God heard him at the brook Jabbok; Jacob's God led him and kept him all his life long, and said concerning him and his family, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm; "and yet these brutish ones profess to believe that he neither sees nor regards the injuries wrought upon the elect people! Surely in such unbelievers is fulfilled the saying of the wise, that those whom the Lord means to destroy he leaves to the madness of their corrupt hearts.
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Ver. 7. They say, the Lord shall not see. As if they had said, Though God should set himself to search us out, and would greatly wish to see what we are doing, yet he shall not. We will carry it so closely and cunningly, that the eye of God shall not reach us. Their works were so foul and bloody, that the sun might be ashamed to look upon them, and they were so secret that they believed God could not look upon them, or bring them to shame for them. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 7. The LORD... the God of Jacob. The divine names are, as usual, significant. That the self existent and eternal God should not see, is a palpable absurdity; and scarcely less so, that the God of Israel should suffer his own people to be slaughtered without even observing it. The last verb means to mark, note, notice. J. A. Alexander.
Psalms 94:8*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv7, 9 Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither…
Psa_94:7-10
Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
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The absurdity of libertinism and infidelity
In the style of the sacred authors, particularly in that of our prophet, to deny the existence of a God, the doctrine of providence, and the essential difference between just and unjust, is one and the same thing (Psa_10:1-18; Psa_14:1-7; Psa_53:1-6).
1. If ye consider the discernment and choice of the people, of whom the prophet speaks, ye will see, that he had a great right to denominate them most brutish and foolish. What an excess must a man have attained, when he hates a religion, without which he cannot but be miserable!
2. Having taken the unbelieving libertine on his own interest, I take him on the public interest, and, having attacked his taste and discernment, I attack his policy. An infidel is a disturber of public peace, who, by undertaking to sap the foundations of religion, undermines those of society. Society cannot subsist without religion. Nor can worldly honour supply the place of religion. Finally. Human laws cannot supply the place of religion. To whatever degree of perfection they may be improved, they will always be imperfect in their substance, weak in their motives, and restrained in their extent.
3. The infidel carrieth his indocility to the utmost degree of extravagance, by undertaking alone to oppose all mankind, and by audaciously preferring his own judgment above that of the whole world, who, excepting a small number, have unanimously embraced the truths which he rejects.
4. Yet, as no man is so unreasonable as not to profess to reason, and as no man takes up a notion so eagerly as not to pique himself on having taken it up after a mature deliberation; we must talk to the infidel as to a philosopher, who always follows the dictates of reason, and argues by principles and consequences. Well, then! Let us examine his logic, or way of reasoning; his way of reasoning, ye will see, is his brutality, and his logic constitutes his extravagance. In order to comprehend this, weigh, in the most exact and equitable balance, the argument of our prophet (verses9, 10). These are, in brief, three sources of evidences, that supply the whole of religion with proof. The first are taken from the works of nature; He who planted the ear; He who formed the eye. The second are taken from the economy of Providence; He that chastizeth the heathen. The third are taken from the history of the Church; He that teacheth man knowledge. These arguments being thus stated, either our infidel must acknowledge that they, at least, render probable the truth of religion in general, and of this thesis in particular, God regardeth the actions of men: or he refuseth to acknowledge it. If he refuse to acknowledge it, then he is an idiot; and there remains no other argument to propose to him, than that of our prophet, Thou fool! When wilt thou be wise? But if the power and the splendour of truth force his consent, then, with the prophet, I say to him, O thou most brutish among the people!
5. Why? Because in comparing his logic with his morality I perceive that nothing but an excess of brutality can unite these two things.
6. I would attack the conscience of the libertine, and terrify him with the language of my text, He who teacheth man knowledge, shall not He correct? That is to say, He who gave you laws, shall not He regard your violation of them? The persons whom I attack, I am aware, have defied us to find the least vestige of what is called conscience in them.
7. Perhaps ye have been surprised that we have reserved the weakest of our attacks for the last. Perhaps ye object, that motives, taken from what is called politeness, and a knowledge of the world, can make no impressions on the minds of those who did not feel the force of our former attacks. It is not without reason, however, that we have placed this last. Libertines and infidels often pique themselves on their gentility and good breeding. Reason they think too scholastic, and faith pedantry. They imagine that, in order to distinguish themselves in the world, they must affect neither to believe nor to reason. Well, you accomplished gentlemen! do you know what the world thinks of you? The prophet tells you; but it is not on the authority of the prophet only, it is on the opinions of your fellow-citizens that I mean to persuade you. You are considered in the world as the most brutish of mankind. You live among people who believe a God, and a religion; among people who were educated in these principles, and who desire to die in these principles; among people who have many of them sacrificed their reputation, their ease, and their fortune to religion. Moreover, you live in a society the foundations of which sink with those of religion, so that were the latter undermined, the former would therefore be sunk. All the members of society are interested in supporting this edifice, which you are endeavouring to destroy. What is this but the height of rudeness, brutality, and madness? (J. Saurin.)
God and human misery
Whatever we think of it, there can, I think, be no doubt that the pressure of human misery has led many to doubt that there can be a God at all; and, if He exists, whether He can be as beneficent as He has been represented to be. Men simply say that if they were omnipotent they would not tolerate the wrongs that now smite, the evils that now destroy. They say that they could not tolerate it if they had only power to prevent it, but God, if He exists at all, and if He be all-powerful, seems to us as if He paid no heed, but restrains His power and lets the hideous carnival of misery go on from generation to generation. Now, let me say inferences on this line are often hasty, and obviously erring. Things are overlooked that must needs be considered if intelligent judgment is to be reached. I do not know, indeed, any explanation that removes every difficulty Concerning some things we can at best but yet see as through a glass darkly. Still, I want to mention some things that, in forming our judgment concerning God and His relation to human misery, should never be forgotten.
1. Wrong is very often done by the general ascription to God of all human misery. Men overlook what the Divine purpose of our Lord was, to declare the relation of God to the sin and woe of our race. We find in the world wheat and tares--that is indisputable; the tares are hurtful, deadly--yes, but whence came they? Not from God: He repudiates alike responsibility and blame. An enemy hath done this. The world is not as God wants it, not as God designed it, not as God seeks it shall yet become. He should not, therefore, be credited with, or blamed for that which men freely and wickedly do. Now, it is no reply to say that God should have made a race that could not sin. That is but the spluttering of human ignorance. God had a right, if He saw it wise, to create a race of moral beings; but moral being you cannot have without the possibility of sin. If the moral nature be given, then man may exercise his power in good or in evil. He can go up or go down, can do the one because he can do the other.
2. Wrong is often done by thinking of the misery that prevails as if it were undistributed. We are apt to think of the mass of suffering that we know exists as if it fell on one human heart. But no one bears it all. It falls on those who are countless in their multitude. Every heart knows its own sorrow, but no heart knows the sorrow of all other hearts. Each carries his own burden. Now, let us be honest and face the facts. We speak of human misery as crushing men and women. But should they be crushed by it? Have we a right to complain of misery as mastering us, if we do not take advantage of the grace by which God means us to master the misery? And then let us not overlook that into every life, however darkened, there comes some compensation. I have known a man declaim against God for creating a world like this, speak of it as hurtful and unfair and without interest; and within a few minutes he was in raptures over a painters reproduction of a very little bit of the earth or of the sea. I have known a man complain by the coffin of his child, but never thank God for the gift of that child, or for all the gladness the child meant to him during the years that it lived.
3. Wrong is often done by overlooking the slowness of moral progress. The cruel wrong that grieves and hurts is not, as I have pointed out, of God. He is against it, and He would have men to put it away from them. But then men are slow in responding to the Divine call. Of course we should have been far further on in progress than we are now, and we would have been if we had only been more responsive to God; but the selfishness that seeks to sway us all, the ignorance as to what is really our true interest, the absorption in the things that can be seen and felt--these have betrayed, and have prevented Gods will being done on earth as it is done in heaven. The wheels of the Gospel-chariot drag heavily, and wrongs that have hurt others still remain to hurt us, and some of them probably will remain to hurt generations yet to be. You say, Why does not God arise in His might, and lay all iniquity in the dust? Because He is God. That which you desire is not His method, cannot be, just because He is God. He deals with His children alike, the loyal and the rebellious, according to the nature which He has given them. He teaches, He draws, He allures from evil, and you can see the effect in the growing sensitiveness as to what we owe to our fellow-men. There are forces at work that must make for a fairer distribution of wealth; forces at work that must bring to an end the wide disparity between East and West.
4. Wrong is often done by overlooking that pain is often sanctified unto much good. Pain in itself is not an evil. Pain is but natures cry to men to give heed to avoid what is hurtful, and to follow that which is beneficent. God doth not afflict willingly the children of men, but in order that we may be made partakers of the Divine nature. There is always an uplift in our sadness, an uplift towards God and heaven.
5. Wrong unutterable is often done by overlooking the all-transforming and all-subduing grace that is put at our disposal the sorrow of life is too great for any one to bear alone, but no one is meant to bear it alone. God wants to carry our griefs for us; grace is revealed, grace that touches our common lot, grace that lightens our larger and our lesser griefs, grace that comes that through it we may attain even now unto the foretaste of heavenly blessedness. All things work together for good to them that love God. (G. Gladstone.)
A blind god wanted
A god or a saint that should really cast the glance of a pure eye into the conscience of the worshipper would not long be held in repute. The grass would grow again around that idols shrine. A seeing god would not do: the idolater wants a blind god. The first cause of idolatry is a desire in an impure heart to escape from the look of the living God, and none but a dead image would serve their turn. (W. Arnot D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v8 General Information:
General Information:
The writer now instructs the wicked people.
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when will you ever learn?
This rhetorical question emphasizes the anger of the writer with the wicked people he is speaking to. This question can be translated as a statement. AT: "stop your foolish ways!" or "learn from your mistakes!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
He who made the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?
These rhetorical questions can be translated as statements or commands. AT: "God made ears, so he can hear. God made eyes, so he can see." or "God made ears, so stop acting as if he does not hear. God made eyes, so stop acting as if he does not see." (See: Rhetorical Question)
translationWords
people group
fool
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7–9 94:7 The wicked think that they can get away…
94:7 The wicked think that they can get away with their vile acts and speech, foolishly assuming that God isn’t looking or doesn’t care.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.