Bible Strands
Psalms 4:2
How long, O men, will my honor be maligned? How long will you love vanity and seek after lies? Selah
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David, in the middle of a psalm of distress, turns from his prayer to God (v.1) to address his accusers directly, calling them "sons of men" (benei 'ish). He is bracketed by two affirmations that the LORD hears (vv.1, 3), and here he confronts the human source of his affliction.
The words — כְּבוֹדִי (khevodî, "my honor/glory") is the same word David uses of the LORD in Psalms 3:3; here it is being twisted into כְּלִמָּה (khelimah, "ignominy"), a direct antithesis. The verb תֶּאֱהָבוּ (te'ehavû, "will you love") frames the charge as deliberate appetite, not mere error.
The thread — Proverbs 1:22 repeats the "How long… will you love" formula; Hosea 4:7 describes the same exchange of glory for disgrace on a national scale.
Why it lands — The verse does not ask whether the reader is wrong about facts but whether they are actively feeding a love for what is empty. It treats "vanity" and "lies" as objects of desire, not just intellectual error.
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
O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 1:22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- Hosea 4:7 The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; they exchanged their Glory for a thing of disgrace.
- Psalms 3:3 But You, O LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.
- Psalms 5:6 You destroy those who tell lies; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
- Psalms 106:20 They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.
- Jeremiah 2:11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.
- 1 Samuel 12:21 Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty.
- Ecclesiastes 8:11 When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.
- Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.
- Psalms 2:1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?