Psalms 50:12
in Psalms 50If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
KJV
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
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This verse in Psalms 50
Commentary
14 notes on this verseAlthough he had respect to the offerings of Abel and smelled a sweet savor from the whole burnt offering of Noah, yet what pleasure could he receive from the flesh of sheep or the odor of burning victims? And yet the simple and God-fearing mind of those who offered what they were receiving from God, both in the way of food and of a sweet smell, was favorably accepted before God, in the sense of respectful homage to God, who did not so much want what was offered as that which prompted the offering.
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 world is Mine
Augustine read the condition as spoken to a small understanding. Spurgeon said a hungry God would supply Himself from His own world and its fullness. Tertullian saw God valuing the honor behind an offering above the offering itself.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Though I am Lord and Master of everything, I am ready to accept from you what is mine so as to win you over to love of me.
Who can explain, who expound that which is said to Him in another Psalm, "For my goods You need not"? He has said that He needs not from us any necessary thing. "If I shall be hungry, I will not tell you" [Psalm 50:12]. He that keeps Israel shall neither hunger nor thirst, nor be weary, nor fall asleep. But, lo! According to your carnality I speak: because you will suffer hunger when you have not eaten, perhaps you think even God does hunger that He may eat. Even though He shall be hungry, He tells not you: all things are before Him, whence He will He takes what is needful for Him. These words are said to convince little understanding; not that God has declared His hunger. Though for our sake this God of gods deigned even to hunger. He came to hunger, and to fill; He came to thirst, and give drink; He came to be clothed with mortality, and to clothe with immortality; He came poor, to make rich. For He lost not His riches by taking to Him our poverty, for, "In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." [Colossians 2:3] "If I shall be hungry, I will not tell you. For Mine is the whole world, and the fullness thereof." Do not then labour to find what to give Me, without whom I have what I will.
The Medieval Church1 voice
"If I should be hungry, I would not tell you." He concludes through an impossibility: if I needed them, I would not tell you, that is, I would not ask them of you. Why? "Because the world is mine and its fullness." Ps. 23: "The …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee,.... Or "say to thee" (w); ask for anything for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof; with which, was the former his case, he could satisfy himself; see Psa 24:1. (w) לא אמר לך "non dicam tibi", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus; "non dicerem tibi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis.
God's infinite self-sufficiency proves our utter insufficiency to add any thing to him. (2.) That he could not be benefited by their sacrifices. Their goodness, of this kind, could not possibly extend to him, nor, if they were in this matter righteous, was he the better (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
6 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century6 voices
The 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.
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.
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee. Strange conception, a hungry God! Yet if such an absurd ideal could be truth, and if the Lord hungered for meat, he would not ask it of men. He could provide for himself out of his own possessions; he would not turn suppliant to his own creatures. Even under the grossest ideal of God, faith in outward ceremonies is ridiculous. Do men fancy that the Lord needs banners, and music, and incense, and fine linen? If he did, the stars would emblazon his standard, the winds and the waves become his orchestra, ten thousand times ten thousand flowers would breathe forth perfume, the snow should be his alb, the rainbow his girdle, the clouds of light his mantle. O fools and slow of heart, ye worship ye know not what! For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. What can he need who is owner of all things and able to create as he wills? Thus overwhelmingly does the Lord pour forth his arguments upon formalists.
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee. Strange conception, a hungry God! Yet if such an absurd ideal could be truth, and if the Lord hungered for meat, he would not ask it of men. He could provide for himself out of his own possessions; he would not turn suppliant to his own creatures. Even under the grossest ideal of God, faith in outward ceremonies is ridiculous. Do men fancy that the Lord needs banners, and music, and incense, and fine linen?
The world is mine, and the fullness thereof - Ye cannot, therefore, give me any thing that is not my own.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee - I should not have occasion to apply to you; I should not be dependent on you. For the world is mine - The earth; all that has been created. And the fulness thereof - All that fills the world; all that exists upon it. The whole is at his disposal; to all that the earth produces he has a right. This language is used to show the absurdity of the supposition that he was in any way dependent on man, or that the offering of sacrifice could be supposed in any way to lay him under obligation.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Will I eat the flesh of bulls I did not order you to bring a sacrifice because I need to eat, but it is My pleasure that I spoke and My will was performed.
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
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| אֶ֭רְעַב | ʾerav | I will be hungry | H7456 → | |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אֹ֣מַר | ʾomar | I will tell | H559 → | 5305 times |
| לָ֑ךְ | lakh | to you | ||
| כִּי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| לִ֥י | li | [belong] to me | ||
| תֵ֝בֵ֗ל | tevel | [the] world | H8398 → | 36 times |
| וּמְלֹאָֽהּ׃ | umeloah | and what fills it | H4393 → | 38 times |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
אֶ֭רְעַבI will be hungry
ʾeravH7456 →
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
אֹ֣מַרI will tell
ʾomarH559 →5305 times
לָ֑ךְto you
lakh
כִּי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
לִ֥י[belong] to me
li
תֵ֝בֵ֗ל[the] world
tevelH8398 →36 times
וּמְלֹאָֽהּ׃and what fills it
umeloahH4393 →38 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
Exodus 19:5Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 14:2
for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the…
- Deuteronomy 7:6
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of…
- Deuteronomy 26:18
And today the LORD has proclaimed that you are His people and treasured possession as He promised, that you are to keep all His commandments,
- Malachi 3:17
“They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
- Exodus 15:26
saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then…
- Deuteronomy 14:2
Through
Job 41:11Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.
it leads to
- Psalms 24:1
The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Romans 11:35
“Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?”
- Psalms 24:1
Through
Deuteronomy 10:14Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it.
it leads to
- Exodus 19:5
Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
- Exodus 19:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms
This page draws on 13 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; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 50:4; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Tertullian, AGAINST MARCION 2.22; Tertullian, Against Marcion and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.