A perverse heart shall leave me; I will know no evil.
Parallel translations
- WEB A perverse heart will be far from me. I will have nothing to do with evil.
- KJV A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.
- BSB A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know nothing of evil.
- NKJV A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.
- NLT I will reject perverse ideas and stay away from every evil.
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
David puts away a perverse heart and refuses to know evil. He distances himself from all crookedness.
Overview
The king resolves to keep a crooked heart far from him and to have nothing to do with evil. Inner integrity governs his outward associations and conduct. Such purity of heart is what God desires and what Christ both embodies and works in His people (Matthew 5:8).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Prov 11:20Those who are perverse in heart are an abomination to Yahweh, but those whose ways are blameless are his delight.
- 2 Cor 6:14–16Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
- Prov 9:6Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding.”
- Prov 8:13The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.
- Ps 119:115Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.
- Prov 22:24Don’t befriend a hot-tempered man, and don’t associate with one who harbors anger:
- Matt 7:23Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’
- 2 Tim 2:19However God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”
- Prov 3:32For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, but his friendship is with the upright.
- Ps 6:8Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.
- Prov 2:12–15to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things;
- 2 Cor 11:33Through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.
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 101:4 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
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