Bible Strands
Psalms 10:13
Why has the wicked man renounced God? He says to himself, “You will never call me to account.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly, asking why the wicked man has turned away from Him in the moment before pleading for divine intervention on behalf of the helpless.
The words — The Hebrew נִאֵץ (ni'etz, "has he spurned") and אֱלֹהִים ('Elohim, "God") record the psalmist's direct question regarding the wicked man's deliberate rejection of divine authority.
The thread — This pattern of rejecting God appears in Numbers 11:20 and 2 Samuel 12:9, while Luke 10:16 extends the principle to the rejection of God's appointed messengers.
Why it lands — The text states that the wicked man claims impunity by telling himself God will never call him to account, which requires the reader to reject that self-deception and rely on God's observed justice.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
Cross-references
- Luke 10:16 Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
- Numbers 11:20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and makes you nauseous—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have cried out before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”
- 2 Samuel 12:9 Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own. You have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.
- 2 Chronicles 24:22 Thus King Joash failed to remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him. Instead, Joash killed Jehoiada’s son. As he lay dying, Zechariah said, “May the LORD see this and call you to account.”
- Psalms 74:10 How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?
- Psalms 74:18 Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, how a foolish people has spurned Your name.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:8 Anyone, then, who rejects this command does not reject man but God, the very One who gives you His Holy Spirit.
- Genesis 9:5 And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man:
- Genesis 42:22 And Reuben responded, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you would not listen. Now we must account for his blood!”
- Luke 11:50 As a result, this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world,