Limitless Word
“For every animal of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills.
Psalms 50:10 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.
  • KJV For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
  • BSB for every beast of the forest is Mine—the cattle on a thousand hills.
  • NKJV For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills.
  • NLT For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.

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

Every animal of the forest and the cattle on a thousand hills already belong to God. He owns all that the worshiper might offer.

Overview

God reminds Israel that all creation is His, so their gifts add nothing to Him. The phrase 'cattle on a thousand hills' has become a classic declaration of God's total ownership of all things. Genuine worship, then, springs from gratitude and dependence, not from supplying God a need.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 13

  • Jer 27:5–6‘I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me.
  • Ps 8:6–8You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet:
  • Ps 104:14He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:
  • Dan 2:38and wherever the children of men dwell, the animals of the field and the birds of the sky has he given into your hand, and has made you to rule over them all: you are the head of gold.
  • Ps 104:24–25Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
  • 1 Chr 29:14–16But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.
  • Gen 2:19Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name.
  • Jonah 4:11Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?”
  • Gen 1:24–25God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
  • Gen 9:2–3The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand.
  • Gen 8:17Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.”
  • Gen 31:9Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me.
  • Job 40:15–24“See now, behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 50:10YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 50:10 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.