Psalms 95:11
in Psalms 95So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Wherefore I sware in my wrath, That they should not enter into my rest.
KJV
Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
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This verse in Psalms 95
Commentary
12 notes on this verse"See, O people, the grace of Christ about you. Even while you are harassed on earth, you have possessions in heaven. There, then, let your heart be, where your possession is." This is the rest that is due the just and is denied the unworthy. Wherefore says the Lord, "As I swore in my wrath, that they shall not enter into my rest."
This site's exposition
do not harden your hearts
on Psalms 95:8-11
Israel quarreled and tested the LORD at Meribah and Massah, two names Exodus 17:7 gives to one place. Forty years of anger followed, and an oath barring that generation from His rest. Hebrews 3:7 to 11 quotes it, and Hebrews 4:9 says a Sabbath rest remains.
This site's exposition
They shall never enter My rest
The rest was the land, which that generation shall never enter. God swore it on oath in His anger, and the psalm ends there with no praise after it. The warning of verse 8 is left standing.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
A commentator
John ChrysostomDISCOURSES AGAINST JUDAIZING CHRISTIANS 6:2.7 · Written before 407.
proposed
Did not the prophet, speaking in behalf of God, say to you, "Forty years I was offended with that generation, and I said, 'These always err in heart.' " How was it, then, that at that time God did not turn away from you? How is it that after you killed your children, after your idolatries, after your many acts of arrogance, after your unspeakable ingratitude, that God even allowed the great Moses to be a prophet among you and that he worked wondrous and marvelous signs himself? What happened in the case of no human being did happen to you. A cloud was stretched over you in place of a roof; a pillar instead of a lamp served to guide you; your enemies retreated of their own accord; cities were captured almost at the first battle shout. You had no need of weapons, no need of an army in array, no need to do battle. You had only to sound your trumpets, and the walls came tumbling down of their own accord. And you had a strange and marvelous food that the prophet spoke of when he exclaimed, "God gave them the bread of heaven. The people ate the bread of angels; he sent them provisions in abundance."
...We began with exulting joy: but this Psalm hath ended with great fear: "Unto whom I sware in My wrath, that they should not enter into My rest" (ver. 11). It is a great thing for God to speak: how much greater for Him to swear? Thou shouldest fear a man when he sweareth, lest he do somewhat on account of his oath against his will: how much more shouldest thou fear God, when He sweareth, seeing He can swear nought rashly? He chose the act of swearing for a confirmation. And by whom doth God swear? By Himself: for He hath no greater by whom to swear. By Himself He confirmeth His promises: by Himself He confirmeth His threats. Let no man say in his heart, His promise is true; His threat is false: as His promise is true, so is His threat sure. Thou oughtest to be equally assured of rest, of happiness, of eternity, of immortality, if thou hast executed His commandments; as of destruction, of the burning of eternal fire, of damnation with the devil, if thou hast despised His commandments. ...
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Observe, [1.] Whence this sentence came--from the wrath of God. He swore solemnly in his wrath, his just and holy wrath; but let not men therefore swear profanely in their wrath, their sinful brutish wrath. God is not subject to such passions as we are; but he is said to be angry, very angry, at sin and sinners, to show the malignity of sin and the justice of God's government.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. 5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. 6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the L ORD our maker.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:96%@v4-6
Unto whom I sware in my wrath,....
4 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. There can be no rest to an unbelieving heart. If manna and miracles could not satisfy Israel, neither would they have been content with the land which flowed with milk and honey.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
warning against neglect; and this is sustained by citing the melancholy fate of their rebellious ancestors, whose provoking insolence is described by quoting the language of God's complaint (Nu 14:11) of their conduct at Meribah and Massah, names given (Ex 17:7) to commemorate their strife and contention with Him (Ps 78:18, 41).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. There can be no rest to an unbelieving heart. If manna and miracles could not satisfy Israel, neither would they have been content with the land which flowed with milk and honey. Canaan was to be the typical resting place of God, where his ark should abide, and the ordinances of religion should be established; the Lord had for forty years borne with the ill manners of the generation which came out of Egypt, and it was but right that he should resolve to have no more of them. Was it not enough that they had revolted all along that marvellous wilderness march? Should they be allowed to make new Messahs and Meribahs in the Promised Land itself? Jehovah would not have it so. He not only said but swore that into his rest they should not come, and that oath excluded every one of them; their carcases fell in the wilderness. Solemn warning this to all who leave the way of faith for paths of petulant murmuring and mistrust. The rebels of old could not enter in because of unbelief, "let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should even seem to come short of it." One blessed inference from this psalm must not be forgotten. It is clear that there is a rest of God, and that some must enter into it: but "they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." The unbelievers could not enter, but "we which have believed do enter into rest." Let us enjoy it, and praise the Lord for it for ever. Ours is the true Sabbatic rest, it is ours to rest from out own works as God did from his. While we do so, let us "come into his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms."
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Unto whom I sware in my wrath - See the notes at Heb 3:11. That they should not enter into my rest - Margin, as in Hebrew, “If they enter into my rest.” The “rest” here referred to was the land of Canaan. They were not permitted to enter there as a place of “rest” after their long and weary wanderings, but died in the wilderness. The meaning is not that none of them were saved (for we must hope that very many of them were brought to the heavenly Canaan), but that they did not come to the promised land. Unbelief shut them out; and this fact is properly made use of here, and in Heb. 3, as furnishing a solemn warning to all not to be unbelieving and rebellious, since the consequence of unbelief and rebellion must be to exclude us from the kingdom of heaven, the true place of “rest.”
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
My resting place [In]to the land of Israel and Jerusalem, which I called “resting place,” as it says (below:14): “This is my resting place forever.”
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Forty years I quarreled with them and contended with them. [אקוט is] an expression of (Job: 1): “My soul quarrels (נקטה) with my life.” I strove with them for forty years to kill them in the desert, because I said, “They are of erring heart.”
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֲשֶׁר־ | ʾasher- | that | H834 → | 5497 times |
| נִשְׁבַּ֥עְתִּי | nishba'ti | I swore an oath | H7650 → | 186 times |
| בְאַפִּ֑י | veapi | in anger my | H639 → | 276 times |
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| יְ֝בֹא֗וּן | yevoun | they will go ! | H935 → | 2568 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | into | H413 → | 5510 times |
| מְנוּחָתִֽי׃ | menuchati | rest my | H4496 → | 22 times |
אֲשֶׁר־that
ʾasher-H834 →5497 times
נִשְׁבַּ֥עְתִּיI swore an oath
nishba'tiH7650 →186 times
בְאַפִּ֑יin anger my
veapiH639 →276 times
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
יְ֝בֹא֗וּןthey will go !
yevounH935 →2568 times
אֶל־into
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
מְנוּחָתִֽי׃rest my
menuchatiH4496 →22 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
Hebrews 3:11So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’”
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 1:34–35
When the LORD heard your words, He grew angry and swore an oath, saying,
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Hebrews 4:3
Now we who have believed enter that rest. As for the others, it is just as God has said: “So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’” And…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 1:34–35
Through
Hebrews 4:3Now we who have believed enter that rest. As for the others, it is just as God has said: “So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’” And…
it leads to
- Matthew 11:28–29
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
- 1 Peter 1:20
He was known before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in the last times for your sake.
- Ephesians 1:4
For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love
- Hebrews 9:26
Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by…
- Matthew 11:28–29
Through
Hebrews 3:18And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest? Was it not to those who disobeyed?
it leads to
- Hebrews 4:6
Since, then, it remains for some to enter His rest, and since those who formerly heard the good news did not enter because of their disobedience,
- Hebrews 4:6
Through
Numbers 14:23not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it.
it leads to
- Numbers 32:11
‘Because they did not follow Me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years of age or older who came out of Egypt will see the land that I swore to give Abraham, Isaac,…
- Numbers 32:11
Where this verse is studied
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About Psalms
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, ON THE DEATH OF THEODOSIUS 29; Augustine of Hippo, On the Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, DISCOURSES AGAINST JUDAIZING CHRISTIANS 6:2.7; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.