Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
Parallel translations
- WEB They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
- BSB Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
- NKJV Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.
- NASB Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel.
- NLT Again and again they tested God’s patience and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
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
They repeatedly tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel. Their rebellion was a recurring pattern.
Overview
'They turned again and tempted God,' provoking 'the Holy One of Israel.' The title stresses God's holiness, against which their sin was an affront. Their relapsing rebellion reveals the bondage of the sinful heart and the necessity of the inward renewal that only grace can bring.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Num 14:22Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
- Heb 3:8–11Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
- Acts 7:39To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
- Deut 6:16Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
- Ps 78:19–20Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
- Num 14:4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
- 2 Pet 2:21–22For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
- 2 Kgs 19:22Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
- Mark 5:35–36While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?
- Ps 89:18For the LORD is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
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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 78:41 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.