Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Parallel translations
- WEB without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;
- BSB They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.
- NKJV undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
- NASB without understanding, untrustworthy, unfeeling, and unmerciful;
- NLT They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.
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
They are senseless, faithless, heartless, and merciless. Sin hardens people against the natural bonds and kindness that should mark human life.
Overview
The final terms in the list emphasize the loss of what is most basically human: understanding, faithfulness to commitments, natural family affection, and mercy. This portrays the depth of corruption when people are given over to sin. It sets the stage for Paul's conclusion that such sin is fully blameworthy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 18:2A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
- 2 Tim 3:3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
- Rom 3:11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
- Isa 33:8The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.
- Jer 4:22For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
- Matt 15:16And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
- Isa 27:11When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
- 2 Kgs 18:14–37And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
- Rom 1:20–21For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 1:31 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 Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.