I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.
Parallel translations
- WEB I look at the faithless with loathing, because they don’t observe your word.
- BSB I look on the faithless with loathing because they do not keep Your word.
- NKJV I see the treacherous, and am disgusted, Because they do not keep Your word.
- NASB I see the treacherous and loathe them, Because they do not keep Your word.
- NLT Seeing these traitors makes me sick at heart, because they care nothing for your word.
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
He looks with grief and loathing at the faithless who disregard God's word. Love for God produces sorrow over sin.
Overview
The psalmist's 'loathing' is not personal vindictiveness but holy grief at the faithlessness of those who ignore God's Word. A heart aligned with God shares God's hatred of sin while longing for sinners' repentance. This righteous sorrow over rebellion mirrors Christ, who wept over a city that rejected God's Word.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 139:21Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
- Ps 119:53Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
- Ps 119:136Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.
- Ezek 9:4And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
- Mark 3:5And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
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 119:158 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.