He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
Parallel translations
- KJV He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
- BSB Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.
- NKJV One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.
- NASB One who turns his ear away from listening to the Law, Even his prayer is an abomination.
- NLT God detests the prayers of a person who ignores the law.
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
If someone refuses to hear God's law, even his prayers become detestable to God. It warns that willful disobedience corrupts our worship.
Overview
The verse teaches that deliberately turning from God's word makes one's prayers an abomination, since true worship cannot be divorced from obedience. God is not honored by religious words from a heart that despises His commands. The gospel calls us to come with a heart cleansed and submitted, made acceptable through Christ our mediator (1 John 3:22).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 66:18If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.
- 2 Tim 4:3–4For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts;
- Zech 7:11–13But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.
- Prov 15:8The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
- Ps 109:7When he is judged, let him come out guilty. Let his prayer be turned into sin.
- Isa 1:15–16When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
- Luke 13:25–27When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
- Isa 58:7–11Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
- Prov 21:13Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 28:9 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.