“Hear,O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me!
Parallel translations
- WEB “Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me!
- KJV Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;
- BSB Hear, O My people, and I will warn you: O Israel, if only you would listen to Me!
- NASB “Hear, My people, and I will admonish you; Israel, if you would listen to Me!
- NLT “Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you would only listen to me!
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 earnestly calls His people to hear His testimony and listen to Him. The heart of the psalm is a plea for attentive obedience.
Overview
God's tender 'if you would listen to me' reveals His longing for His people's faithful response. This echoes the Shema's central call to hear and obey (Deut. 6:4). The verse exposes that Israel's deepest need is not more deliverance but a listening heart, a need ultimately met by the new heart promised in the gospel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 50:7“Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
- John 3:11Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.
- Exod 15:26and he said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.”
- Isa 55:3–4Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
- 1 Jn 5:9If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is God’s testimony which he has testified concerning his Son.
- Isa 1:19If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
- John 3:32–33What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness.
- Ps 81:13Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
- Deut 5:27Go near, and hear all that Yahweh our God shall say, and tell us all that Yahweh our God tells you; and we will hear it, and do it.”
- Acts 20:21testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
- Deut 32:46He said to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 81:8 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.