“Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
- KJV Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.
- NKJV “Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you; I am God, your God!
- NASB ¶“Hear, My people, and I will speak; Israel, I will testify against you; I am God, your God.
- NLT “O my people, listen as I speak. Here are my charges against you, O Israel: I am God, your God!
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
God speaks directly to His people, testifying against them as 'your God.' His rebuke flows from covenant relationship, not estrangement.
Overview
God formally addresses Israel, asserting His covenant claim—'I am God, your God'—before delivering His charge. The relationship is real, which is precisely why their failures matter. The verses that follow correct a misunderstanding of worship, not the existence of the covenant itself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Ps 81:8Hear, O My people, and I will warn you: O Israel, if only you would listen to Me!
- Exod 20:2“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
- Jer 2:9Therefore, I will contend with you again, declares the LORD, and I will bring a case against your children’s children.
- Exod 19:5–6Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
- Ps 81:10–12I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.
- Mal 3:5“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- Zech 13:9This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”
- Deut 26:17–18Today you have proclaimed that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in His ways, keep His statutes and commandments and ordinances, and listen to His voice.
- 2 Kgs 17:13Yet through all His prophets and seers, the LORD warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes, according to the entire Law that I commanded your fathers and delivered to you through My servants the prophets.”
- Ps 49:1For the choirmaster. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all inhabitants of the world,
- 2 Chr 28:5So the LORD his God delivered Ahaz into the hand of the king of Aram, who attacked him and took many captives to Damascus. Ahaz was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force.
- Jer 2:4–5Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all you families of the house of Israel.
- Ezek 20:19–20I am the LORD your God; walk in My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them.
- Ezek 20:7And I said to them: ‘Each of you must throw away the abominations before his eyes, and you must not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’
- Deut 31:19–21Now therefore, write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites; have them recite it, so that it may be a witness for Me against them.
- Ezek 20:5and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt. With an uplifted hand I said to them, ‘I am the LORD your God.’
- Neh 9:29–30You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They stubbornly shrugged their shoulders; they stiffened their necks and would not obey.
- 1 Sam 12:22–25Indeed, for the sake of His great name, the LORD will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own.
- Mic 6:1–8Hear now what the LORD says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
- Isa 1:18“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.
Resources, by level
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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 50:7 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.