Psalms 50:10
in Psalms 50for every beast of the forest is Mine— the cattle on a thousand hills.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills.
KJV
For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
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This verse in Psalms 50
Commentary
13 notes on this verseThe address which follows is directed to the professed people of God. It is clearly, in the first place, meant for Israel; but is equally applicable to the visible church of God in every age. It declares the futility of external worship when spiritual faith is absent, and the mere outward ceremonial is rested in.
This site's exposition
no need for a bull
on Psalms 50:9-13
No need for a bull from the stall, since every beast of the forest is His. The cattle on a thousand hills and every bird in the mountains are His already, and He asks whether He eats the flesh of bulls. The world is His, and the fullness of it.
This site's exposition
the cattle on a thousand hills
Augustine pictured Israel granting God the wild beasts while keeping the ox in the stall as its own. The verse claims both. Adam Clarke drew the point: every offering hands God a part of His own property.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"For mine are all the beasts of the wood" [Psalm 50:10]. Why should I ask of you what I have made? Is it more yours, to whom I have given it to possess, than Mine, who have made it? "For mine are all the beasts of the wood." But perchance that Israel says, The beasts are God's, those wild beasts which I enclose not in my pen, which I bind not to my stall; but this ox and sheep and he-goat— these are my own. "Cattle on the mountain, and oxen." Mine are those which you possess not, Mine are these which you possess. For if you are My servant, the whole of your property is Mine. For it cannot be, that is the property of the master which the servant has gotten to himself, and yet that not be the property of the Master which the Master Himself has created for the servant. Therefore Mine are the beasts of the wood which you have not taken; Mine are also the cattle on the mountains which are yours, and the oxen which are at your stall: all are My own, for I have created them.
All created things are under the providence of God. Does not even one sparrow fall without the Father who is in heaven knowing?
The Medieval Church1 voice
"For all the beasts of the forests are mine." He proves what he said, namely that he approves neither calves nor goats, and that if he were in need, he would not accept them from their house. No one asks for something that is in …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
), has an incontestable propriety in them and dominion over them, has them all always under his eye and within his reach, and can make what use he pleases of them; they all wait on him, and are all at his disposal? Can we add any thing to his store whose all the wild fowl and wild beasts are, the world itself and the fulness thereof?
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
For every beast of the forest is mine,.... By creation and preservation; and therefore he stood in no need of their bullocks and he goats; and the cattle upon a thousand hills; meaning all the cattle in the whole world.
5 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Reproving them for such foolish and blasphemous notions, He teaches them to offer, or literally, "sacrifice," thanksgiving, and pay, or perform, their vows--that is, to bring, with the external symbolical service, the homage of the heart, and faith, penitence, and love. To this is added an invitation to seek, and a promise to afford, all needed help in trouble.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
For every beast of the forest is mine - All the beasts that roam at large in the wilderness; all that are untamed and unclaimed by man. The idea is, that even if God “needed” such offerings, he was not dependent on them - for the numberless beasts that roamed at large as his own would yield an ample supply. And the cattle upon a thousand hills - This may mean either the cattle that roamed by thousands on the hills, or the cattle on numberless hills. The Hebrew will bear either construction. The former is most likely to be the meaning. The allusion is probably to the animals that were pastured in great numbers on the hills, and that were claimed by men. The idea is, that all - whether wild or tame - belonged to God, and he had a right to them, to dispose of them as he pleased. He was not, therefore, in any way dependent on sacrifices. It is a beautiful and impressive thought, that the “property” in all these animals - in all living things on the earth - is in God, and that he has a right to dispose of them as he pleases. What man owns, he owns under God, and has no right to complain when God comes and asserts his superior claim to dispose of it at his pleasure. God has never given to man the absolute proprietorship in “any” thing; nor does he invade our rights when he comes and claims what we possess, or when in any way he removes what is most valuable to us. Compare Job 1:21.
For every beast of the forest is mine. How could they imagine that the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, had need of beasts, when all the countless hordes that find shelter in a thousand forests and wildernesses belong to him? And the cattle upon a thousand hills. Not alone the wild beasts, but also the tamer creatures are all his own. Even if God cared for these things, he could supply himself. Their cattle were not, after all, their own, but were still the great Creator's property, why then should he be beholden to them. From Dan to Beersheba, from Nebaioth to Lebanon, there fed not a beast which was not marked with the name of the great Shepherd; why, then, should he crave oblations of Israel? What a slight is here put even upon sacrifices of divine appointment when wrongly viewed as in themselves pleasing to God! And all this to be so expressly stated under the law! How much more is this clear under the gospel, when it is so much more plainly revealed, that "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth"? Ye Ritualists, ye Sacramentarians, ye modern Pharisees, what say ye to this?
For every beast of the forest is mine. How could they imagine that the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, had need of beasts, when all the countless hordes that find shelter in a thousand forests and wildernesses belong to him? And the cattle upon a thousand hills. Not alone the wild beasts, but also the tamer creatures are all his own. Even if God cared for these things, he could supply himself. Their cattle were not, after all, their own, but were still the great Creator's property, why then should he be beholden to them.
Every beast of the forest is mine - Can ye suppose that ye are laying me under obligation to you, when ye present me with a part of my own property?
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
the behemoth of the thousand mountains That is (the bull) destined for the future feast [of the righteous], which grazes on a thousand mountains daily, and every day they grow back.
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. 3 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
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| לִ֥י | li | [belong] to me | ||
| כָל־ | khol- | every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| חַיְתוֹ־ | chaytov- | living creature of | H2416 → | 498 times |
| יָ֑עַר | yaar | [the] forest | H3293 → | 59 times |
| בְּ֝הֵמ֗וֹת | behemot | [the] animals | H929 → | 190 times |
| בְּהַרְרֵי־ | beharei- | on hills of | H2042 → | 12 times |
| אָֽלֶף׃ | ʾalef | a thousand | H505 → | 505 times |
כִּי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
לִ֥י[belong] to me
li
כָל־every
khol-H3605 →5413 times
חַיְתוֹ־living creature of
chaytov-H2416 →498 times
יָ֑עַר[the] forest
yaarH3293 →59 times
בְּ֝הֵמ֗וֹת[the] animals
behemotH929 →190 times
בְּהַרְרֵי־on hills of
beharei-H2042 →12 times
אָֽלֶף׃a thousand
ʾalefH505 →505 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
Psalms 104:14He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:
it leads to
- Psalms 136:25
He gives food to every creature. His loving devotion endures forever.
- Psalms 147:8–9
who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the hills.
- Psalms 145:15–16
The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.
- Job 28:5
Food may come from the earth, but from below it is transformed as by fire.
- 1 Corinthians 3:7
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
- Psalms 136:25
Through
Daniel 2:38Wherever the sons of men or beasts of the field or birds of the air dwell, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are that…
it leads to
- Daniel 4:21–22
whose foliage was beautiful and whose fruit was abundant, providing food for all, under which the beasts of the field lived, and in whose branches the birds of the air nested—
- Psalms 50:10–11
for every beast of the forest is Mine— the cattle on a thousand hills.
- Jeremiah 27:5–7
By My great power and outstretched arm, I made the earth and the men and beasts on the face of it, and I give it to whom I please.
- Daniel 4:21–22
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 50; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Evagrius Ponticus, NOTES ON THE PSALMS 49[50].10; 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 and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.