Psalms 94:4
in Psalms 94They pour out arrogant words; all workers of iniquity boast.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They prate, they speak arrogantly: All the workers of iniquity boast themselves.
KJV
How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
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This verse in Psalms 94
Commentary
11 notes on this verse"They will utter and speak iniquity." He speaks of this properly concerning the heretics. "All who work iniquity shall speak." See the sign: he who speaks evil must necessarily do evil. "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Wherever the conscience is wounded, there sin is easily committed in the mouth.
This site's exposition
They pour out arrogant words
on Psalms 94:4-7
The crimes are named one by one, crushing God's people, killing the widow and the foreigner, murdering the fatherless. Deuteronomy 10:18 names the same three as the ones God Himself defends. Verse 7 gives the wicked's reason, that the LORD does not see.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"How long shall sinners, O Lord, how long shall sinners glory?" The sinner who beseeches God earns pardon; but he who glories in his wickedness is proud: and pride has God for its enemy. This which he says, "how long?" — it is to be understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ ("in common," carried over), so that we may recognize it thus: "How long shall sinners glory? How long shall they utter and speak iniquity? How long shall they speak, all who work injustice?" Human impatience therefore marvels at the patience of God, and says: I, a sinner, cannot endure sinners; how can you, who are just, bear with them? "How long, O Lord, shall sinners glory?" He did not say, "How long shall sinners sin?" He has a great sin who sins, and moreover glories in his sin. "Shall they utter and speak iniquity?" All sins are cloaked with speech: but pride betrays its iniquity, while it glories in its own wickedness.
"Lord, how long shall the ungodly, how long shall the ungodly triumph?" [Psalm 94:3]. "They answer, and will speak wickedness, they all will speak that work unrighteousness" [Psalm 94:4]. What is their saying, but against God, when they say: What profits it us that we live thus? What will you reply? Does God truly regard our deeds? For because they live, they imagine that God knows not their actions. Behold, what evil happens unto them! If the officers knew where they were, they would arrest them; and they therefore avoid the officer's eyes, that they may escape instant apprehension; but no one can escape the eye of God, since He not only sees within the closet, but within the recesses of the heart. Even they themselves believe that nothing can escape God: and because they do evil, and are conscious of what they have done, and see that they live while God knows, though they would not live if the officer discovered them; they say unto themselves, These things please God: and, in truth, if they displeased Him, as they displease kings, as they displease judges, as they displease governors, as they displease recorders, yet could we escape the eye of God, as we do escape the eyes of those authorities? Therefore these things please God....Some righteous man comes, and says, Do not commit iniquity. Wherefore? That you may not die. Behold, iniquity I have committed: why do I not die? That man wrought righteousness: and he is dead: why is he dead? I have wrought iniquity: why has not God carried me off? Behold, that man did righteously: and why has He thus visited him? Why suffers He thus? They answer; this is the meaning of the word "answer:" for they have a reply to make; because they are spared, from the long-suffering of God, they discover an argument for their reply. He spares them for one reason, they answer for another, because they still live. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
How long shall they utter and speak hard things?,.... Against Christ, his person and offices, his ministers, his people, his truths and ordinances; this is very applicable to antichrist, who has a mouth speaking blasphemies, and which he opens, and with it blasphemes God, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in it, Rev 13:
Utter - Or pour forth freely, constantly, abundantly, as a fountain doth waters (so this Hebrew word signifies.) Hard things - Insolent, and intolerable words against thee and thy people.
The character of the enemies they complain against. They are wicked; they are workers of iniquity; they are bad, very bad, themselves, and therefore they hate and persecute those whose goodness shames and condemns them. Those are wicked indeed, and workers of the worst iniquity, lost to all honour and virtue, who are cruel to the innocent and hate the righteous.
4 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
How long shall they utter and speak hard things? The ungodly are not content with deeds of injustice, but they add hard speeches, boasting, threatening, and insulting over the saints. Will the Lord for ever endure this? Will he leave his own children much longer to be the prey of their enemies? Will not the insolent speeches of his adversaries and theirs at last provoke his justice to interfere?
How long shall they utter and speak hard things? The ungodly are not content with deeds of injustice, but they add hard speeches, boasting, threatening, and insulting over the saints. Will the Lord for ever endure this? Will he leave his own children much longer to be the prey of their enemies? Will not the insolent speeches of his adversaries and theirs at last provoke his justice to interfere? Words often wound more than swords, they are as hard to the heart as stones to the flesh; and these are poured forth by the ungodly in redundance, for such is the force of the word translated utter; and they use them so commonly that they become their common speech (they utter and speak them)—will this always be endured? And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?—they even soliloquise and talk to themselves, and of themselves, in arrogance of Spirit, as if they were doing some good deed when they crush the poor and needy, and spit their spite on gracious men. It is the nature of workers of iniquity to boast, just as it is a characteristic of good men to be humble—will their boasts always be suffered by the great Judge, whose ear hears all that they say? Long, very long, have they had the platform to themselves, and loud, very loud, have been their blasphemies of God, and their railings at his saints—will not the day soon come when the threatened heritage of shame and everlasting contempt shall be meted out to them? Thus the oppressed plead with their Lord, and shall not God avenge his own elect? Will he not speak out of heaven to the enemy and say, "Why persecutest thou me"?
They utter and speak - יביאו yabbiu, their hearts get full of pride and insolence; and then, from the abundance of such vile hearts, the mouth speaks; and the speech is of hard things, threatening which they are determined to execute, boastings of their power, authority, etc.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
How long shall they utter and speak hard things? - The word rendered utter means to pour forth - as water from a fountain; to pour forth copiously. The meaning is, that they seemed to be full, and that they poured forth evil words as a fountain pours forth water. The phrase “hard things” means proud, unfeeling, insolent things; things which are unjust, unkind, severe, harsh. And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? - Boast of their power and their success. How long shall they be permitted to have such success as may seem to justify them in their exultation?
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יַבִּ֣יעוּ | yabiu | they pour forth | H5042 → | 11 times |
| יְדַבְּר֣וּ | yedaberu | they speak | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| עָתָ֑ק | ʾatak | arrogance | H6277 → | 4 times |
| יִֽ֝תְאַמְּר֗וּ | yitameru | they boast | H559 → | 5305 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| פֹּ֥עֲלֵי | poalei | [those who] do | H6466 → | 57 times |
| אָֽוֶן׃ | ʾaven | <of> wickedness | H205 → | 77 times |
יַבִּ֣יעוּthey pour forth
yabiuH5042 →11 times
יְדַבְּר֣וּthey speak
yedaberuH1696 →1141 times
עָתָ֑קarrogance
ʾatakH6277 →4 times
יִֽ֝תְאַמְּר֗וּthey boast
yitameruH559 →5305 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
פֹּ֥עֲלֵי[those who] do
poaleiH6466 →57 times
אָֽוֶן׃<of> wickedness
ʾavenH205 →77 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 52:1Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The loving devotion of God endures all day long.
it leads to
- Psalms 103:17
But from everlasting to everlasting the loving devotion of the LORD extends to those who fear Him, and His righteousness to their children’s children—
- Psalms 107:1
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.
- 1 Samuel 21:7
Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the LORD. And his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief shepherd for Saul.
- Psalms 103:17
Through
Psalms 140:3They sharpen their tongues like snakes; the venom of vipers is on their lips. Selah
it leads to
- Psalms 58:4
Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like a cobra that shuts its ears,
- Romans 3:13–14
“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”
- Psalms 58:4
Through
Psalms 31:18May lying lips be silenced— lips that speak with arrogance against the righteous, full of pride and contempt.
it leads to
- Jude 1:15
to execute judgment on everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of every ungodly act of wickedness and every harsh word spoken against Him by ungodly sinners.”
- Isaiah 54:17
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the…
- 1 Samuel 2:3
Do not boast so proudly, or let arrogance come from your mouth, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by Him actions are weighed.
- Jude 1:15
About Psalms
This page draws on 10 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, Exposition on Psalm 94; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Jerome, Homily 22, on Psalm 93; Jerome, Homily 71, on Psalm 93 (Alternate Series); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; 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.