“Therefore I swore in My anger, They certainly shall not enter My rest.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They won’t enter into my rest.”
- KJV Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
- BSB So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”
- NKJV So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
- NLT So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”
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
Therefore God swore in His wrath that they would not enter His rest. Unbelief barred that generation from the promised rest.
Overview
Because of their hardened unbelief, God solemnly excluded the wilderness generation from entering the land of rest. This judgment frames the psalm's urgent warning to respond rightly 'today.' Hebrews develops this into the promise of a greater Sabbath rest entered by faith in Christ, urging us not to fall by the same disobedience (Hebrews 4:1-11).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Heb 4:3For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest”; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
- Heb 4:5and in this place again, “They will not enter into my rest.”
- Num 14:23surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it.
- Heb 3:11as I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’”
- Heb 3:18To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
- Jer 6:16Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
- Matt 11:28–29“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.
- Deut 1:34–35Yahweh heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying,
- Deut 12:9for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Rev 14:13I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them.”
- Num 14:28–30Tell them, ‘As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you.
- Gen 2:2–3On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
- Hos 4:4–11“Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; For your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 95:11 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.