For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known My ways.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways.”
- KJV Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
- NKJV For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’
- NASB “For forty years I was disgusted with that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways.
- NLT For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’
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
For forty years God was grieved with that wayward, straying generation. Persistent rebellion grieves God and reveals hearts gone astray.
Overview
God speaks of His long-suffering grief over a generation that continually erred and refused to know His ways. Their heart-level straying, not mere outward failure, was the issue. This sobering picture underscores the seriousness of unbelief and the patience of God, magnifying the grace now offered in Christ (Hebrews 3:10; Numbers 14:34).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Heb 3:17And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
- Prov 1:22–29“How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- Heb 3:9–10where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works.
- Isa 63:17Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.
- Acts 13:18He endured their conduct for about forty years in the wilderness.
- Acts 7:36He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.
- Deut 2:14–16The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Brook of Zered was thirty-eight years, until that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.
- Jer 9:6You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD.
- Num 32:13The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation who had done evil in His sight was gone.
- Prov 1:7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
- Eph 4:30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
- Num 14:33–34Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.
- Rom 1:28Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
- Gen 6:6And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
- Deut 1:3In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them.
- John 3:19–21And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.
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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 95:10 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
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