He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.”
Parallel translations
- KJV He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
- BSB He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”
- ESV He says in his heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”
- NKJV He has said in his heart, “God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see.”
- NASB He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”
- NLT The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us! He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
The wicked tells himself God has forgotten and will never see his deeds. He presumes upon God's silence as if it were blindness.
Overview
The wicked man's self-deceiving thought is that God neither notices nor will act against his evil. This denial of divine accountability is the engine of his cruelty. The psalm will directly refute this lie, affirming that God does see and will call the wicked to account.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ezek 8:12Then 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? For they say, ‘Yahweh doesn’t see us. Yahweh has forsaken the land.’”
- Ps 94:7They say, “Yah will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”
- Ps 10:6He says in his heart, “I shall not be shaken. For generations I shall have no trouble.”
- Ps 73:11They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
- Ezek 9:9Then 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 of perversion; for they say, ‘Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see.’
- Eccl 8:11Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
- Ps 64:5They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly. They say, “Who will see them?”
- Luke 7:39Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner.”
- Job 22:13–14You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?
- Mark 2:6But there were some of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 10:11 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.