Psalms 106:15 · Bible study
Psalms 106:15 Commentary: When Answers Bring Wasting
Hebrew · 11 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Psalm 106:15 warns that God sometimes gives what we ask, but sends wasting into our souls. Learn from Israel's judgment at Kibroth Hattaavah.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God answered Israel's craving for meat with abundance, but in anger sent a wasting disease that killed many, a sobering lesson that not every answered prayer is a blessing.
- Key words: rāzon (leanness, wasting disease) and nephesh (soul, appetite, life), the very part that craved became the target of judgment.
- Main debate: Whether the 'leanness' refers primarily to physical death (the plague in Numbers 11) or to spiritual impoverishment. Most commentators see both: the physical judgment was a sign of deeper soul-wasting.
- Theological theme: The danger of self-willed desire and the sovereignty of God, who sometimes judges by granting our requests. A warning against demanding our way instead of trusting His provision.
- Best use: Preach alongside Numbers 11 as a cautionary tale about prayer, desire, and discernment. Use in small groups examining motives and the difference between asking in faith and demanding in unbelief.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.
WEB World English Bible 2000
He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.
KJV King James Version 1769
And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
And he gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
And He giveth to them their request, And sendeth leanness into their soul.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Then he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him, and his wonderful works to the children of men.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Y él les dió lo que pidieron; mas envió flaqueza en sus almas.
Então ele lhes concedeu o que pediam, porém enviou magreza a suas almas.
Il leur accorda ce qu’ ils demandaient;
Er aber gab ihnen ihre Bitte und sandte ihnen genug, bis ihnen davor ekelte.
Toen gaf Hij hun hun begeerte; maar Hij zond aan hun zielen een magerheid.
Ed egli dette loro quel che chiedevano, ma mandò la consunzione nelle loro persone.
I dał im, czego żądali, a wszakże przepuścił suchoty na nich.
Да славят Господа за милость Его и за чудные дела Его для сынов человеческих:
他將他們所求的 賜 給他們，卻使 他們的心靈 軟弱。
And he gave them their request, but sent a wasting disease into their souls.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Psalms 106:15
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators broadly agree that Psalm 106:15 describes a grim paradox: God granted Israel's craving for meat in the wilderness, but in the same act sent judgment that wasted them. Barnes notes that the Hebrew verb rāzeh (the root of 'leanness') means 'to make thin, to cause to waste away', and that this wasting could affect both body and soul. Gill points to Numbers 11:33, where God struck the people with a plague while the meat was still in their mouths; he calls the leanness 'death' or a 'consumption' that came through surfeit. Keil and Delitzsch add that the poet interprets the plague at Kibroth Hattaavah as a 'wasting disease' (following Isaiah 10:16). Cambridge Bible cites the graves of lust as the place where 'the satisfaction of their self-willed lust brought sickness and death.' The consensus is unbroken: the request was granted, but the giver of the request was angry, and the gift itself became a curse.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: God's granting of the request was a form of judgment, not a mark of favor; the people's own craving became the vehicle of their punishment.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Nature of the leanness | All traditions agree that God's granting of the request was accompanied by a judgment that harmed the people. | Some commentators (e.g., Gill, Wesley) see the leanness as the immediate death described in Numbers 11:33-34, a physical wasting. Others (Barnes, Matthew Henry) emphasize spiritual leanness: loss of faith, gratitude, and closeness to God, which can follow even when judgment is not immediate physical death. |
| Theological function of the answered prayer | It is agreed that God sometimes answers prayers in anger as a form of discipline or judgment (cf. Psalm 78:29-31). | Christians differ on how this principle applies to believers under the new covenant. Some (broadly Reformed) see it as a continuing warning that God may give believers what they demand to expose sin. Others (broader Evangelical) stress that Christ's atonement transforms all divine discipline for believers into loving chastening (Hebrews 12:6-11), so that even granted requests that produce hardship are for final good. |
| The role of human desire | All agree that the sin was craving that rejected God's provision (the manna) and demanded something else. | Some traditions (e.g., Wesleyan-Holiness) use this verse to argue that desires themselves can be sinful if they arise from distrust; others (e.g., Lutheran) distinguish between natural appetite and the sin of demanding God satisfy it on our own terms. |
| Application to prayer today | All Christians can learn to examine motives before asking, and to trust God's timing and provision. | Charismatic traditions might emphasize that faith-filled prayer should expect a positive answer, but with caution against 'demanding' one's will. More cessationist or cautionary traditions focus on the danger of praying outside God's revealed will (1 John 5:14). Both seek to avoid the error of Israel. |
Historical & Cultural Context
The verse recalls the event in Numbers 11, where the Israelites, tired of manna, demanded meat. They said, 'Our soul is dried away' (Numbers 11:6), using the same word nephesh ('soul' or 'appetite') that appears in Psalm 106:15. God sent quails in abundance, enough to cover the camp a day's journey on every side (Numbers 11:31). But while the meat was still in their mouths, the anger of the Lord struck the people with a severe plague (Numbers 11:33), so the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, 'the graves of lust' (Numbers 11:34).
Psalm 106 is a national confession, recounting Israel's pattern of sin and God's recurring mercy. Verses 13-15 fall within a section on the wilderness generation's refusal to trust God. The poet emphasizes the irony: the very craving that drove them to complain against God's provision was granted, but the granting brought death. The Hebrew verb for 'sent' (shalach) is in the Piel stem, used elsewhere for deliberately dispatching a plague or a curse. The word rāzon ('leanness') occurs only here, in Isaiah 10:16 (of God sending leanness on Assyria), and in Micah 6:10 (for scant measures). It carries the sense of a wasting disease that gnaws away at vitality. The soul (nephesh) that craved was also the soul that wasted, the appetite itself became the instrument of punishment.
Textual Notes
The Hebrew text of Psalm 106:15 is well established; the consulted sources note no significant variants in the Masoretic tradition. The Septuagint and Vulgate, followed by the Syriac and Arabic versions, read 'fulness' or 'satisfaction' (πλησμονήν / ad saturitatem) instead of 'leanness' (rāzon). Keil and Delitzsch judge this an error, possibly a misreading of the Hebrew word as mezon ('nourishment'). The reading 'fulness' softens the verse, but the context of Numbers 11 and the parallelism with judgment in Psalm 78:31 support the Masoretic 'leanness' as the original reading.
Reception History
This verse has been used throughout church history as a warning against carnal prayer. Jerome and Augustine warned that God sometimes grants requests in anger to punish the stubborn heart. In the Reformation, Calvin cited it to argue that believers should not 'dictate to God what He should do,' because 'what is asked in passion is often given in wrath.' Matthew Henry's commentary, widely read in English Puritan households, emphasized the need to join prayer with submission: 'If we pray for temporal prosperity, we should also pray that we may have grace commensurate with it.' In modern evangelical preaching, Psalm 106:15 is often paired with Numbers 11 as a cautionary tale about the 'graves of lust', a reminder that getting what we want can be the worst thing that happens to us, if we have not first sought the kingdom.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The request that was granted. Israel asked for meat, and God gave it, but His giving was seasoned with wrath. Their prayer was heard, but answered in judgment. (Numbers 11:18-20)
- The leanness that followed. The same soul that desired was made to waste. The pleasure of the answered prayer became the bitter taste of punishment. Physical gratification led to physical death; spiritual desire ungoverned led to spiritual emptiness.
- The God who disciplines in love. Paul reminds us that 'all these things happened to them as examples' (1 Corinthians 10:6). God's 'yes' is not always His blessing. Sometimes He gives us what we demand to show us how much we need Him instead.
Five-point outline
- What they wanted: Meat, variety, relief from manna.
- What they forgot: The mighty works of deliverance (v.13), and the goodness of God's daily provision.
- What they got: Quails in astonishing abundance, but also the plague.
- What they lost: Life, health, and the joy of gratitude. Their souls shrank even as their stomachs filled.
- What we learn: To test our desires by God's will, not by our cravings. A granted request without God's blessing is a curse.
Illustration hooks
- A child begs for a pet, promises to care for it, then neglects it, the gift becomes a burden and a source of conflict.
- Someone prays intensely for a promotion, gets it, and then discovers the new role destroys their family life and spiritual peace.
- A church insists on a particular program or building project, and God allows it, but the fruit is division and debt rather than unity and growth.
Questions your congregation is asking
- How do I know if God is saying 'yes' as a blessing or 'yes' as a judgment?
- What do I do when I realize I have gotten something I prayed for, and it is hurting me?
- Can my desires be so strong that they lead me to reject God even when He gives me what I want?
Leading a Discussion
This verse challenges our assumption that God's 'yes' is always good for us. As you meet in your group, let the story of Kibroth Hattaavah shape your conversation: a whole community got exactly what they demanded, and it killed them. What might that mean for how we pray and what we want?
Discussion questions
- Read Numbers 11:4-34. What stands out to you about the way God responded to Israel's craving?
- Psalm 106:15 uses the same word 'soul' (nephesh) for the seat of desire and the part that wasted. Why is that connection significant?
- Have you ever experienced a time when you got something you desperately wanted, and it left you worse off? How did that change your view of prayer?
- Barnes writes, 'Rare is it that growth in grace keeps pace with uninterrupted worldly prosperity.' Do you agree? What examples from your life or the church support or challenge this?
- How can we tell the difference between a God-given desire and a lust that will lead to leanness? What safeguards does Scripture give us?
- What does this verse teach about the character of God? Does it make you trust Him more or struggle with fear?
- How can a small group help members hold each other accountable when we are praying for something that might not be wise?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Numbers 11:20 | but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils, and it is loathsome to you; because you have rejected Yahweh who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’” |
| Numbers 11:31 | A wind from Yahweh went out and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the earth. |
| Numbers 11:34 | The name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who lusted. |
| Psalms 78:29 | So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire. |
| Psalms 78:31 | when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of their strongest, and struck down the young men of Israel. |
| Isaiah 10:16 | Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire. |
| Isaiah 24:16 | From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke notes that the people despised manna as worthless, so God gave them the meat they demanded but withheld His blessing. Without that blessing, the food could not nourish them; they grew physically lean, and their souls also suffered spiritual emptiness.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes highlights the painful irony that God sometimes grants our requests as an act of judgment, not kindness. Getting what we desperately want can become a curse when it makes us forget our dependence on God, and what is asked in passion is often given in wrath.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin observes that Psalm 106 is not primarily a reproof or complaint against Israel, but a confession of sins aimed at obtaining pardon. The psalm begins with praise to encourage hope, then acknowledges that God's people repeatedly abused his kindness, making them unworthy of continued blessing—so the writer asks forgiveness.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The commentator highlights the bitter irony: the Israelites complained that their souls were dried away and longed for flesh to restore their vigor, yet satisfying that self-willed craving brought not life but sickness and death. The very place was named "the graves of lust," a lasting monument to sin and its punishment.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note highlights a severe divine irony: God granted Israel's demand for meat, but the gift itself became a curse. Their physical satisfaction came at the cost of spiritual emptiness, a "leanness of soul" that outlasted the meal and exposed the ruin of getting what we want apart from God's will.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill reads "sent leanness into their soul" as a reference to physical death, not spiritual poverty. He notes that God sometimes grants the requests of wicked people in a way that destroys them, citing the moment when the Israelites died while the meat was still in their mouths.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB stresses the irony that God punished Israel by giving them exactly what they demanded. The gratification of their animal craving became its own judgment, so the very place was named "graves of lust." The granted wish carried the punishment inside it.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch traces Israel's wilderness sins back to one root: they abandoned faith in God's promise, forgot His confirming works, and refused to wait for His plan to unfold. The commentator interprets the judgment at Kibroth-hattaavah as a wasting disease sent because the people greedily gorged on meat rather than trusting God's timing.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange highlights the unexpected turn in the psalm: it begins with praise and a question intended to introduce a song, but then shifts to blessing the righteous and a personal prayer for favor, finally becoming a full confession of Israel's repeated sins and God's mercy. He reads this as a liturgical prayer composed during the Babylonian exile.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley’s point is that an excessive craving to pamper the body actually destroys the soul. These people pour their souls into their bodies, so their very desire for physical comfort becomes the cause of their ruin.