Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
Parallel translations
- KJV Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
- BSB If only My people would listen to Me, if Israel would follow My ways,
- NKJV “Oh,that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!
- NASB “Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!
- NLT Oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!
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 yearns that His people would only listen to Him and walk in His ways. His heart aches with longing for their good.
Overview
The plaintive 'Oh that my people would listen' reveals God's compassionate desire, not a cold deity but a grieved Father. His ways are the path of blessing He longs for them to walk. This tender longing finds its fullest expression in Christ, who wept over Jerusalem's refusal of God's grace (Luke 13:34).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Isa 48:18Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
- Deut 5:29Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!
- Deut 10:12–13Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
- Luke 19:41–42When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it,
- Matt 23:37“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
- Deut 32:29Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
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 81:13 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.