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Psalms 7:11

in Psalms 7

God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation each day.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

God is a righteous judge, Yea, a God that hath indignation every day.

KJV

God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

This verse in Psalms 7

Commentary

14 notes on this verse

A commentator

Basil of Caesarea

HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 11:7 (PS 7) · Written before 379.

Do not be so poorly disposed toward God as to think that he is too weak to avenge, for he is also strong. What reason is there, then, that swift vengeance is not inflicted on the sinner? Because he is patient, "he is not angry every day."

This site's exposition

who searches hearts and minds

on Psalms 7:9-11

The prayer widens past David's own case, to end the evil of the wicked and establish the righteous. Hearts and minds renders two Hebrew words for the inward man, the heart and the kidneys, where desire sits. God shields the upright and feels indignation each day.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers5 voices

A commentator

Augustine of Hippo

On the Psalms, Psalm 7 · Written in the 5th century.

proposed

"God the righteous judge, strong (in endurance) and long-suffering" (ver. 11). What God is judge, but the Lord, who judgeth the people? He is righteous; who "shall render to every man according to his works." He is strong (in endurance); who, being most powerful, for our salvation bore even with ungodly persecutors. He is long-suffering; who did not immediately, after His resurrection, hurry away to punishment, even those that persecuted Him, but bore with them, that they might at length turn from that ungodliness to salvation: and still He beareth with them, reserving the last penalty for the last judgment, and up to this present time inviting sinners to repentance. "Not bringing in anger every day." Perhaps "bringing in anger" is a more significant expression than being angry (and so we find it in the Greek copies); that the anger, whereby He punisheth, should not be in Him, but in the minds of those ministers who obey the commandments of truth through whom orders are given even to the lower ministries, who are called angels of wrath, to punish sin: whom even now the punishment of men delights not for justice' sake, in which they have no pleasure, but for malice' sake. God then doth not "bring in anger every day," that is, He doth not collect His ministers for vengeance every day. For now the patience of God inviteth to repentance: but in the last time, when men "through their hardness and impenitent heart shall have treasured up for themselves anger in the day of anger, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, then He will brandish His sword."

A commentator

Eusebius of Caesarea

COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 7:10, 11 · Written before 339.

proposed

God alone is the just Judge, he alone is the one who sees hearts. He gives to each one according to his works. Truly, "man looks at the outward appearance," but the Lord is a judge of thoughts and the feelings of the spirit. There is no judgment hidden from him.

A commentator

Gregory of Nyssa

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PSALMS 2:11.148-49 · Written before 395.

proposed

That same adversary, Absalom, as if he has been born again from ourselves, prepares the war against us. Our sound judgment concerning the matter, or rather our alliance with God, turns him who is bloodthirsty against us back. For because he attributes the cause of the good things that have been accomplished for him through "the words of Cush" to God, he composes this thanksgiving.… It would be worthwhile to apply the figures of the story to the virtuous life, how the advice that saves us becomes the strangling of the adversary; and this saving advice has been recorded, on the one hand, in the history, and on the other, in the psalm.

A commentator

Theodoret of Cyrus

COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 7:6 · Written before 458.

proposed

"God is a righteous judge, … who does not give free rein to his wrath every day." Instead, he also shows lovingkindness, by which he bears people's faults for a longer time. For whenever he sees people not reaping profit from it, he gives them …

A commentator

Diodorus of Tarsus

COMMENTARY ON PSALM 7 · Written before 390.

proposed

If long-suffering were not associated with his justice, there would have been nothing to stop him punishing day in day out, since sinners always provide grounds for just punishment. Sinners, however, should not for this reason be disposed to indifference: those of right mind rightly …
7 more voices on this verse

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Exposition on the Psalms of David · Written before 1274.

proposed

Above he set forth the divine judgment; here, however, he treats of the delay of the future event, namely of punishment. And first he shows the cause of the delay. Second, the preparation for vengeance: "unless you are converted," etc. He proposes, moreover, three causes …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

God judgeth the righteous,....

The Nineteenth Century5 voices

A commentator

Charles Spurgeon

1834–1892

The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)

"God judgeth the righteous, " he hath not given thee up to be condemned by the lips of persecutors. Thine enemies cannot sit on God's throne, nor blot thy name out of his book. Let them alone, then, for God will find time for his revenge. "God is angry with the wicked every day." He not only detests sin, but is angry with those who continue to indulge in it. We have no insensible and stolid God to deal with; he can be angry, nay, he is angry to-day and every day with you, ye ungodly and impenitent sinners.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

judgeth--as in Ps 7:8. the wicked--Though not expressed, they are implied, for they alone are left as objects of anger. They are here distinctly pointed out, though by changing the person, a very common mode of speech, one is selected as a representative of wicked men generally. The military figures are of obvious meaning.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A commentator

Charles Spurgeon

1834–1892

The Treasury of David, Vol. 1 (1869)

proposed

"God judgeth the righteous, " he hath not given thee up to be condemned by the lips of persecutors. Thine enemies cannot sit on God's throne, nor blot thy name out of his book. Let them alone, then, for God will find time for his revenge. "God is angry with the wicked every day." He not only detests sin, but is angry with those who continue to indulge in it. We have no insensible and stolid God to deal with; he can be angry, nay, he is angry to-day and every day with you, ye ungodly and impenitent sinners. The best day that ever dawns on a sinner brings a curse with it. Sinners may have many feast days, but no safe days. From the beginning of the year even to its ending, there is not an hour in which God's oven is not hot, and burning in readiness for the wicked, who shall be as stubble.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

God is angry with the wicked every day - The Hebrew for this sentence is the following: ועל זעם בכל יום veel zoem becol yom; which, according to the points, is, And God is angry every day. Our translation seems to have been borrowed from the Chaldee, where the whole verse is as follows: אלהא דינא זכאה ובתקוף רגיז אל רשיעי כל יומא elaha daiyana zaccaah ubithkoph rageiz al reshiey col yoma: “God is a righteous Judge; and in strength he is angry against the wicked every day.” The Vulgate: Deus Judex justus, fortis, et patiens; numquid irascitur per sinpulos dies? “God is a Judge righteous, strong, and patient; will he be angry every day?” The Septuagint: Ὁ Θεος Κριτης δικαιος, και ισχυρος, και μακροθυμος, μη οργην επαγων καθ’ ἑκαστην ἡμεραν; “God is a righteous Judge, strong and longsuffering; not bringing forth his anger every day.” Syriac: “God is the Judge of righteousness; he is not angry every day.” The Arabic is the same as the Septuagint. The Aethiopic: “God is a just Judge, and strong and longsuffering; he will not bring forth tribulation daily.” Coverdale: God is a righteous judge, and Gob is ever threateninge. King Edward’s Bible by Becke 1549, follows this reading. Cardmarden: God is a righteous judge, [strong and patient] and God is provoked every day. Cardmarden has borrowed strong and patient from the Vulgate or Septuagint, but as he found nothing in the Hebrew to express them, he put the words in a smaller letter, and included them in brackets. This is followed by the prose version in our Prayer Book. The Genevan version, printed by Barker, the king’s printer, 1615, translates thus: “God judgeth the righteous, and him that contemneth God every day.” On which there is this marginal note: “He doth continually call the wicked to repentance, by some signs of his judgments.” My ancient Scotico - English MS. […]
God judgeth the righteous - That is, he pronounces a just judgment on their behalf; he vindicates their character. It is true, in a general sense, that God judges all according to their character; but the particular idea here is, that God will do justice to the righteous; he will interpose to vindicate them, and he will treat them as they ought to be treated when assailed by their enemies, and when reproached and calumniated.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

My shield is upon God: – He might have said, My shield is God. What, then, is the significance of על, upon? Only that my reliance and stay is God, who will be my shield, for He is A deliverer of the upright of heart.
Radak: Provence, 1160–1235 · Radak on Psalms 7:11:1, via Sefaria, R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

7 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • אֱ֭לֹהִיםGod

    ʾelohimH4302601 times

  • שׁוֹפֵ֣ט[is] a judge

    shofetH8199202 times

  • צַדִּ֑יקrighteous

    tzadikH6662206 times

  • וְ֝אֵ֗לand God

    veelH410241 times

  • זֹעֵ֥ם[is] indignant

    zoemH2194

  • בְּכָל־on every

    bekholH36055413 times

  • יֽוֹם׃day

    yomH31172304 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Psalms 7:8

    The LORD judges the peoples; vindicate me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and integrity.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 96:13

      before the LORD, for He is coming— He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.

    • Romans 14:10–12

      Why, then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.

  • Through

    Nahum 1:2

    The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and full of wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on His foes and reserves wrath for His enemies.

    it leads to

    • Exodus 20:5

      You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth…

    • Zechariah 8:2

      This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I am jealous for Zion with great zeal; I am jealous for her with great fervor.”

    • Psalms 94:1

      O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth.

    • Exodus 34:14

      For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

  • Through

    Nahum 1:6

    Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 10:10

      But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at His wrath, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.

    • Malachi 3:2

      But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.

About Psalms

Narrow Road of Virtue and Wide Road of Sin. Jan Micker, not stated on the file page. National Museum in Warsaw. Public domain.
Narrow Road of Virtue and Wide Road of Sin. Jan Micker, not stated on the file page. National Museum in Warsaw. Public domain.
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, On the Psalms, Psalm 7; Basil of Caesarea, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 11:7 (PS 7); Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 1; Diodorus of Tarsus, COMMENTARY ON PSALM 7; Eusebius of Caesarea, COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 7:10, 11; Gregory of Nyssa, INSCRIPTIONS OF THE PSALMS 2:11.148-49; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 7:6 and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.