Psalms 81:12
in Psalms 81So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
So I let them go after the stubbornness of their heart, That they might walk in their own counsels.
KJV
So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
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This verse in Psalms 81
Commentary
11 notes on this verseAnd I let them go according to the desires of their heart: they shall go on in their own devices. Unhappy is he who is not corrected by God. If anyone sinning is not struck, he is wretched. Therefore he says: I let them go according to the desires of their heart. For this reason I let them go, because I often struck them and they did not accept discipline. I entreated, they did not hear; I struck, they did not feel the pain.
This site's exposition
My people would not listen
on Psalms 81:11-12
Israel would not listen and would not obey. God hands them over to their own stubborn hearts, which Romans 1:24 calls giving men over to the desires of their hearts. Their own devices became the punishment.
This site's exposition
their stubborn hearts
Albert Barnes gave the Hebrew as sent them away to the hardness of their hearts. Jerome called it the last step. God had struck them often and they took no correction, so He let them go their own way.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"And I let them go according to the affections of their heart" (ver. 12). Behold the press: the orifices are open, the lees run. "And I let them go," not according to the healthfulness of My commands; but, according to the affections of their heart: I gave them up to themselves. The Apostle also saith, "God gave them up to the desires of their own hearts." "I let them go according to the affection of their heart, they shall go in their own affections." There is what ye shudder at, if at least ye are straining out into the hidden vats of the Lord, if at least ye have conceived a hearty love for His storehouses, there is what ye shudder at. Some stand up for the circus, some for the amphitheatre, some for the booths in the streets some for the theatres, some for this, some for that, some finally for their "new gods;" "they shall go in their own affections."
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Testimony - For a witness of that glorious deliverance. Went - As a captain at the head of his people. Egypt - To execute his judgments upon that land.
So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust,....
His grace is his own, and he is debtor to no man, and yet, as he never gave his grace to any that could say they deserved it, so he never took it away from any but such as had first forfeited it: They would none of me, so I gave them up; let them take their course.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust. No punishment is more just or more severe than this. If men will not be checked, but madly take the bit between their teeth and refuse obedience, who shall wonder if the reins are thrown upon their necks, and they are let alone to work out their own destruction. It were better to be given up to lions than to our hearts' lusts. And they walked in their own counsels.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust. No punishment is more just or more severe than this. If men will not be checked, but madly take the bit between their teeth and refuse obedience, who shall wonder if the reins are thrown upon their necks, and they are let alone to work out their own destruction. It were better to be given up to lions than to our hearts' lusts. And they walked in their own counsels. There was no doubt as to what course they would take, for man is everywhere wilful and loves his own way, —that way being at all times in direct opposition to God's way. Men deserted of restraining grace, sin with deliberation; they consult, and debate, and consider, and then elect evil rather than good, with malice aforethought and in cool blood. It is a remarkable obduracy of rebellion when men not only run into sin through passion, but calmly "walk in their own counsels" of iniquity.
Unto their own hearts’ lust - To the obstinate wickedness of their heart. In their own counsels - God withdrew his restraining grace, which they had abused; and then they fulfilled the inventions of their wicked hearts.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust - Margin, as in Hebrew, to the hardness of their own hearts. Literally, “I sent them, or I dismissed them, to the hardness of their hearts.” I suffered them to have what, in the hardness of their hearts they desired, or what their hard and rebellious hearts prompted them to desire: I indulged them in their wishes. I gave them what they asked, and left them to themselves to work out the problem about success and happiness in their own way - to let them see what must be the result of forsaking the true God. The world - and the church too - has been often suffered to make this experiment. And they walked in their own counsels - As they thought wise and best. Compare Act 7:42; Act 14:16; Rom 1:24; Psa 78:26-37.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
open your mouth wide to request of Me whatever your heart desires.
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. 6 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
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וָֽ֭אֲשַׁלְּחֵהוּ | vaashalechehu | and I gave over it | H7971 → | 845 times |
| בִּשְׁרִיר֣וּת | bishrirut | in [the] stubbornness of | H8307 → | |
| לִבָּ֑ם | libam | heart their | H3820 → | 595 times |
| יֵ֝לְכ֗וּ | yelekhu | they walked | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| בְּֽמוֹעֲצוֹתֵיהֶֽם׃ | bemoatzoteihem | in own schemes their | H4156 → |
וָֽ֭אֲשַׁלְּחֵהוּand I gave over it
vaashalechehuH7971 →845 times
בִּשְׁרִיר֣וּתin [the] stubbornness of
bishrirutH8307 →
לִבָּ֑םheart their
libamH3820 →595 times
יֵ֝לְכ֗וּthey walked
yelekhuH1980 →1546 times
בְּֽמוֹעֲצוֹתֵיהֶֽם׃in own schemes their
bemoatzoteihemH4156 →
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
Romans 1:24Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.
it leads to
- Psalms 81:11–12
But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Acts 7:42
But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and…
- Acts 14:16
In past generations, He let all nations go their own way.
- Matthew 15:14
Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12
and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.
- Psalms 81:11–12
Through
Acts 7:42But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and…
it leads to
- Amos 5:25–26
Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
- Amos 5:25–26
Through
Isaiah 30:1“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
it leads to
- Isaiah 65:2
All day long I have held out My hands to an obstinate people who walk in the wrong path, who follow their own imaginations,
- Isaiah 65:2
Through
Acts 14:16In past generations, He let all nations go their own way.
it leads to
- Acts 17:30
Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.
- Acts 17:30
Where this verse is studied
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 81; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Jerome, Homily 13, on Psalm 80; Jerome, Homilies on the Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.