Bible Strands
Psalms 78:17
But they continued to sin against Him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses a worshiping community recounting Israel's wilderness history, positioned between God's provision of water from the rock and the people's subsequent demand for meat.
The words — The Hebrew וַ/יּוֹסִ֣יפוּ לַ/חֲטֹא (va/i.yo.Si.fu la/cha.to') literally means "they added to sin" or "they continued to sin," marking repetitive defiance. The phrase בַּ/צִּיָּֽה (ba./tzi.Yah) specifies the arid desert where this rebellion took place.
The thread — This same wilderness defiance surfaces in Deuteronomy 9:8 at Horeb, Isaiah 63:10 concerning grief to God's Spirit, and Hebrews 3:16 regarding the exodus generation.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to acknowledge that material provision does not secure loyalty, demanding a clear-eyed assessment of personal obedience when grace is given.
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
And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 63:10 But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.
- Deuteronomy 9:8 At Horeb you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you.
- Hebrews 3:16 For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
- Deuteronomy 9:12 And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”
- Psalms 95:8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,
- Psalms 106:13 Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel.
- Psalms 78:32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.