Bible Strands
Psalms 109:14
May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist pronounces a judicial curse against a specific adversary, directing the plea to God during a moment of intense personal litigation. The surrounding verses frame this as a request for the total eradication of the enemy’s lineage and legacy.
The words — The Hebrew יִזָּכֵ֤ר (yi.za.Kher) means "may it be remembered," and חַטַּאת (cha.Tat) translates literally to "the sin." The text uses these terms to demand that God actively retain the record of the enemy’s parental guilt rather than erase it.
The thread — This motif of unblotted sin appears in Exodus 20:5, where God visits the iniquity of ancestors, and Nehemiah 4:5, which pleads that God not cover up the builders' enemies' iniquity. Jeremiah 18:23 similarly commands God not to wipe out the guilt of those plotting against the prophet.
Why it lands — The verse demands the reader acknowledge that divine justice preserves a permanent record of generational guilt. It requires accepting that God’s judicial memory actively opposes the complete removal of an enemy’s legacy.
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
Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
Cross-references
- Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
- Nehemiah 4:5 Do not cover up their iniquity or let their sin be blotted out from Your sight, for they have provoked the builders.
- Jeremiah 18:23 But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me. Do not wipe out their guilt or blot out their sin from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.
- Leviticus 26:39 Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.
- 2 Samuel 3:29 May it whirl over the head of Joab and over the entire house of his father, and may the house of Joab never be without one having a discharge or skin disease, or one who leans on a staff or falls by the sword or lacks food.”
- 2 Samuel 21:1 During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”
- 2 Samuel 21:8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
- 2 Kings 8:27 And Ahaziah walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab, for he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab.
- 2 Kings 9:27 When King Ahaziah of Judah saw this, he fled up the road toward Beth-haggan. And Jehu pursued him, shouting, “Shoot him too!” So they shot Ahaziah in his chariot on the Ascent of Gur, near Ibleam, and he fled to Megiddo and died there.
- 2 Kings 10:13 Jehu met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, “Who are you?” “We are relatives of Ahaziah,” they answered, “and we have come down to greet the sons of the king and of the queen mother.”