If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
Parallel translations
- WEB If his children forsake my law, and don’t walk in my ordinances;
- BSB If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments,
- NKJV “Ifhis sons forsake My law And do not walk in My judgments,
- NASB ¶“If his sons abandon My Law And do not walk in My judgments,
- NLT But if his descendants forsake my instructions and fail to obey my regulations,
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 anticipates that David's descendants may forsake His law and disobey His commands.
Overview
The covenant includes a realistic provision for the king's sons straying from God's ways. This introduces the conditional element governing individual kings' experience of blessing. Their failures highlight the need for a faithful Son of David who would perfectly keep God's law (Matt. 5:17).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 2 Sam 7:14I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
- 1 Chr 28:9And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
- Ps 119:53Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
- Prov 28:4They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.
- Ps 132:12If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore.
- Prov 4:2For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.
- Ezek 18:17That hath taken off his hand from the poor, that hath not received usury nor increase, hath executed my judgments, hath walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.
- 2 Chr 7:17–22And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments;
- Jer 9:13–16And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
- Ezek 20:19I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them;
- Luke 1:6And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
- Ezek 18:9Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord GOD.
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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 89:30 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.