Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.

PSALMS 50:17KJV
Know the Bible

Psalms 50:17 (KJV)

What does Psalms 50:17 mean?

Psalms 50:17 describes a person who treats God’s guidance with contempt. God challenges such people because they speak about his commands while rejecting the correction those commands bring.

Following the question in verse 16, God gives the reason for his challenge. “Castest my words behind thee” pictures someone throwing God’s words out of sight rather than keeping them in view.

The Hebrew behind Psalms 50:17

  • “instruction” — מוּסָר (musar): This word can mean correction or discipline as well as teaching. In this verse, it suggests guidance that challenges a person’s behavior, not merely information to learn.
  • “castest” — שָׁלַךְ (shalakh): This word means to throw or cast. Paired with “behind thee,” it gives the rejection of God’s words the force of a deliberate action.

Why Psalms 50:17 matters

  • The issue is more than knowing the words. In verse 16, God asks why the wicked person speaks of his statutes; verse 17 points to that person’s response to God’s instruction.
  • The verse connects words with conduct. The examples that follow in verses 18–20 include joining with wrongdoers and using speech to harm others.
  • God addresses the wicked directly as “thou.” The wording makes the charge personal, even though the surrounding passage describes a group.

Where else these words appear

“instruction” Hebrew H4148 · used in 50 verses

  • Deuteronomy 11:2 And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm,
  • Proverbs 8:10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
  • Proverbs 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

“castest” Hebrew H7993 · used in 121 verses

  • Genesis 21:15 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
  • 2 Kings 2:16 And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the LORD hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send.
  • Isaiah 19:8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

“hatest” Hebrew H8130 · used in 139 verses

  • Genesis 24:60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
  • Esther 9:1 Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them,(though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;)
  • Proverbs 1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: