Psalms 75:5
in Psalms 75Do not lift up your horn against heaven or speak with an outstretched neck.’”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Lift not up your horn on high; Speak not with a stiff neck.
KJV
Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.
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This verse in Psalms 75
Commentary
10 notes on this verseLift not up your horn on high. For their abounding pride there is a double rebuke. A word from God soon abases the lofty. Would to God that all proud men would obey the word here given them; for, if they do not, he will take effectual means to secure obedience, and then woe will come upon them, such as shall break their horns and roll their glory in the mire for ever. Speak not with a stiff neck. Impudence before God is madness. The outstretched neck of insolent pride is sure to provoke his axe.
This site's exposition
I say to the proud
on Psalms 75:4-5
The warning goes to the proud and to the wicked: keep the boasting down and keep the horn down. A horn on an animal is its strength showing, and Hannah's horn is lifted by the LORD at 1 Samuel 2:1. The neck that will not bend is the second picture.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
If you say that, you will not be singing to no purpose, "I said, Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you." If God is blamed for the evil that you do and you take credit for the good, then you are speaking wickedly against God. Listen to what the psalm has to say on this point: "Do not lift your horn on high or speak wickedly against God." The iniquity you were speaking against God is this, that you were wishing to attribute everything good to yourself and everything bad to him. By lifting up the horn of pride, you were speaking wickedly against God. With humility you speak justly. And what is the equity you speak with humility? "I said, Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you."
"Be not therefore lifted up: speak not iniquity against God" [Psalm 75:5]....What says He in another Psalm? "These things you have done," having enumerated certain sins. "These things you have done," He says, "and was silent." What is, "I was silent"? He is never silent with commandment, but meanwhile He is silent with punishment: He is keeping still from vengeance, He does not pronounce sentence against the condemned. But this man says thus, I have done such and such things, and God has not taken vengeance; behold I am whole, nought of ill has befallen me. "These things you have done, and I was silent: you have suspected iniquity, that I shall be like you." What is, "that I shall be like you"? Because you are unjust, even Me you have deemed unjust; as though an approver of your misdeeds, and no adversary, no avenger thereof. And what afterwards says He to you? "I will convict you, and will set you before your own face"? What is this? Because now by sinning behind your back you set yourself, see not yourself, examinest not yourself; I will set you before yourself, and will bring upon you punishment from yourself. So also here, "Speak not iniquity against God." Attend. Many men speak this iniquity; but dare not openly, lest as blasphemers they be abhorred by godly men: in their heart they gnaw upon these things, within they feed upon such impious food; it delights them to speak against God, and if they break not out with tongue, in heart they are not silent. Whence in another Psalm is said, "The fool has said in his heart, There is no God." The fool has said, but he has feared men: he would not say it where men might hear; and he said it in that place where He might Himself hear concerning whom he said it.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Lift not up your horn on high,....
Let not the anti-christian power, with its heads and horns, lift up itself against him, for it shall certainly be broken to pieces; what is said with a stiff neck must be unsaid again with a broken heart, or we are undone. Pharaoh said with a stiff neck, Who is the Lord?
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Here the writer speaks in view of God's declaration, warning the wicked. Lift . . . up the horn--to exalt power, here, of the wicked himself--that is, to be arrogant or self-elated.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Lift not up your horn on high. For their abounding pride there is a double rebuke. A word from God soon abases the lofty. Would to God that all proud men would obey the word here given them; for, if they do not, he will take effectual means to secure obedience, and then woe will come upon them, such as shall break their horns and roll their glory in the mire for ever. Speak not with a stiff neck. Impudence before God is madness. The outstretched neck of insolent pride is sure to provoke his axe. Those who carry their heads high shall find that they will be lifted yet higher, as Haman was upon the gallows which he had prepared for the righteous man. Silence, thou silly boaster! Silence! or God will answer thee. Who art thou, thou worm, that thou shouldest arrogantly object against thy Maker's laws and cavil at his truth? Be hushed, thou vainglorious prater, or vengeance shall silence thee to thine eternal confusion.
Speak not with a stiff neck - Mr. Bruce has observed that the Abyssinian kings have a horn on their diadem; and that the keeping it erect, or in a projecting form, makes them appear as if they had a stiff neck; and refers to this passage for the antiquity of the usage, and the appearance also.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Lift not up your horn on high - In a proud, self-confident, arrogant manner. Speak not with a stiff neck - With arrogance and pride; in a haughty, imperious manner. The word rendered “stiff” (literally “a neck of stiffness”) - עתק ‛âthâq - means properly bold, impudent, wicked; and the idea is that of speaking as those do who are impudent, shameless, bold, licentious - indicating confidence in themselves, and a reckless disregard of truth and of the rights of others. The Septuagint and the Vulgate render it, “And speak not unrighteousness against God.”
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
When the earth and all its inhabitants were melting away, etc.
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 wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| תָּרִ֣ימוּ | tarimu | you lift up | H7311 → | 190 times |
| לַמָּר֣וֹם | lamarom | to the height | H4791 → | 54 times |
| קַרְנְכֶ֑ם | karnekhem | horn your | H7161 → | 76 times |
| תְּדַבְּר֖וּ | tedaberu | may you speak | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| בְצַוָּ֣אר | vetzavar | with a neck | H6677 → | |
| עָתָֽק׃ | ʾatak | arrogance | H6277 → | 4 times |
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →724 times
תָּרִ֣ימוּyou lift up
tarimuH7311 →190 times
לַמָּר֣וֹםto the height
lamaromH4791 →54 times
קַרְנְכֶ֑םhorn your
karnekhemH7161 →76 times
תְּדַבְּר֖וּmay you speak
tedaberuH1696 →1141 times
בְצַוָּ֣ארwith a neck
vetzavarH6677 →
עָתָֽק׃arrogance
ʾatakH6277 →4 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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
Isaiah 48:4For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.
it leads to
- Acts 7:51
You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Exodus 32:9
The LORD also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Zechariah 7:11–12
But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.
- Proverbs 29:1
A man who remains stiff-necked after much reproof will suddenly be shattered beyond recovery.
- Ezekiel 3:4–9
Then He said to me, “Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak My words to them.
- Acts 7:51
Through
Acts 7:51You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 10:16
Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.
- Isaiah 63:10
But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.
- Jeremiah 4:4
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to…
- Deuteronomy 10:16
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Psalms
This page draws on 9 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, SERMON 16B.2; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 75; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 3; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.