Bible Strands
Psalms 81:15
Those who hate the LORD would feign obedience, and their doom would last forever.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Israel, contrasting His immediate judgment on their enemies with the permanent fate of those who reject Him. The statement occurs within a divine monologue outlining the consequences of rebellion versus obedience.
The words — יְכַֽחֲשׁוּ (ye.kha.cha.shu) means "they will feign" or "cringe," and עִתָּם לְעוֹלָם ('itta-m le-'olam) literally translates to "their time forever." These terms frame feigned compliance as a temporary posture destined for permanent ruin.
The thread — The theme of divine retribution against God-haters appears in Deuteronomy 7:10, where Yahweh repays them with destruction, and Romans 1:30, which lists God-haters among the unrepentant. The immediate context in Psalms 81:14–16 contrasts this doom with the promised sustenance for the obedient.
Why it lands — The text declares that hatred toward Yahweh produces only counterfeit obedience and permanent ruin. It demands a reader to abandon superficial compliance and recognize that allegiance to God determines eternal standing.
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
The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 7:10 But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.
- Psalms 63:3 Because Your loving devotion is better than life, my lips will glorify You.
- Romans 1:30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.
- Romans 8:7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
- 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,
- Joel 3:20 But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
- Psalms 18:44 When they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cower before me.
- Psalms 83:2 See how Your enemies rage, how Your foes have reared their heads.
- Psalms 102:28 The children of Your servants will dwell securely, and their descendants will be established before You.”
- John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.