Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance,
Parallel translations
- WEB Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;
- KJV Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
- NKJV “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything,
- NASB “Since you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, in gratitude for the abundance of all things,
- NLT If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel is judged because they did not serve God with joy and gladness amid abundance.
Overview
Strikingly, the root sin named here is joyless service even in the midst of plenty. God desires not grudging obedience but glad-hearted worship. This reveals that true faithfulness flows from a heart that delights in God, a theme fulfilled in the joyful obedience the gospel produces.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Deut 16:11and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.
- Neh 9:35–37For even while they were in their kingdom, with the abundant goodness that You had given them, and in the spacious and fertile land that You had set before them, they would not serve You or turn from their wicked ways.
- 1 Tim 6:17–19Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.
- Deut 12:7–12There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.
- Deut 32:13–15He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 28:47 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.