Bible Strands
Psalms 89:34
I will not violate My covenant or alter the utterance of My lips.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — YHWH speaks in the first person, affirming His covenant with David in the midst of what appears to be its failure (v.33 precedes; v.35 follows with a sworn oath).
The words — אֲחַלֵּל (a.cha.Lel, "I will violate," H2490) and אֲשַנֶּה (a.sha.Neh, "I will change," H8138) are both Piel forms, marking deliberate, intensive action — the verb shapes stress that God will not choose to break or alter.
The thread — Numbers 23:19 states that God does not lie or change His mind; Matthew 24:35 declares that His words will never pass away; James 1:17 affirms there is no variation with Him.
Why it lands — God binds Himself to His own utterance, making His word the fixed point rather than a negotiable commitment. The reader is asked to treat divine promises as final, not provisional.
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
My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Cross-references
- Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
- Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
- James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
- Malachi 3:6 “Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.
- Romans 11:29 For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.
- Jeremiah 14:21 For the sake of Your name do not despise us; do not disgrace Your glorious throne. Remember Your covenant with us; do not break it.
- Leviticus 26:44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.
- Jeremiah 33:20 “This is what the LORD says: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night cease to occupy their appointed time,