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.’
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:
- BSB 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.”
- 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 3:17With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
- Prov 1:22–29“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?
- Heb 3:9–10where your fathers tested me by proving me, and saw my deeds for forty years.
- Isa 63:17O Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
- Acts 13:18For a period of about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.
- Acts 7:36This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.
- Deut 2:14–16The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea, until we had come over the brook Zered, were thirty-eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the middle of the camp, as Yahweh swore to them.
- Jer 9:6Your habitation is in the middle of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me,” says Yahweh.
- Num 32:13Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, who had done evil in Yahweh’s sight, was consumed.
- Prov 1:7The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
- Eph 4:30Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
- Num 14:33–34Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies are consumed in the wilderness.
- Rom 1:28Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
- Gen 6:6Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
- Deut 1:3In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that Yahweh had given him in commandment to them;
- John 3:19–21This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works 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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