Psalm 5:5, You hate.The idea of Elohim hating is anathema to the sensibilities of most Christians. After all, doesn’t the Bible declare that “Elohim is love” (1 John 4:8,16)? How could he also hate anything, much less people? Yet this is what this verse says, “[YHVH] hates all workers of iniquity.” Let’s explore this concept and try to understand how this could be so.
But first, let’s define the word hate. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, hate means “to have a strong dislike or ill will for; to wish to avoid.” According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, the word hate in the Tanakh (or Old Testament) means “to hate as an enemy or foe, to be utterly odious.” As used in the Testimony of Yeshua, hate means “to detest.”
Here are some examples of certain things that Elohim hates, and of Elohim commanding his people to hate certain things as well.
Your throne, O Elohim, is for ever and ever…. You love righteousness, and hate wickedness… (Ps 45:6–7)
Here we see that Elohim loves what is good and detests that which is evil or sinful (or Torahless).
The foolish shall not stand in your sight; you hate all workers of iniquity. (Ps 5:5)
Workers of iniquity is a biblical expression referring to “those who walk contrary to Torah.”
YHVH tries the righteous, but the wicked and him that loves violence his soul hates. (Ps 11:5)
These six things does YHVH hate, yes, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brethren. (Prov 6:16–19)
Elohim strongly dislikes or detests those things that are sinful (Torahless) or wicked—those things which hurt people and which cause pain and suffering. Even his hatred is out of a heart of love for the lost and a desire for them to repent and return to Torah.
For I, YHVH, love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. (Isa 61:8)
YHVH hates religious hypocrisy, and those who plunder his people spiritually for their own personal gain.
Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.”(Jer 44:4)
When people disobey the Word of Elohim, YHVH hates this and calls it “an abominable thing.”
Seek good, and not evil, that you may live, and so YHVH, the Elohim of Hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate; it may be that YHVH Elohim of Hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. (Amos 5:14–15)
Here Elohim commands his people to hate evil and to love good even as he does.
The fear of YHVH is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. (Prov 8:13)
Elsewhere we read that “the fear of Elohim is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov 1:7). Therefore, we can conclude that an aspect of godly wisdom is to hate evil even as Elohim hates evil. Wisdom is a biblical Hebraism meaning “Torah.”
These are the things that you shall do: speak you every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath, for all these are things that I hate, says YHVH. (Zech 8:16–17).
All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them, for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters. (Hos 9:15)
Elohim hated the house of Israel (Ephraim) because of their rebellion against him and their wickedness (or Torahlessness), because they had turned away from Torah (Hos 8:1,12), and because they had become morally and sexually corrupt (Hos 9:9).
But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. (Rev 2:6).
Here YHVH commends these early first century believers for hating the sinful (Torahless) deeds of the heretics called the Nicolaitans, even as he (YHVH) hated them. Here YHVH teaches us that we are to hate the actions of false teachers who come into the congregation or the spiritual body of Yeshua. We also learn that we’re not to hate the sinner, but to hate the sin. We are also to hate the things that Elohim hates.
From the above study, hopefully we can learn several things. When studying these verses of the Scriptures in the context of the rest of the Bible, we should see that while Elohim is a God of love, and he loves humans so much that he sent Yeshua, his Son, to die for us, he is, at the same time, an Elohim of justices, righteousness and holiness. He abhors the sinful (Torahless) deeds of wicked and rebellious men, for sin and evil destroy that which he loves. He desires that all men turn from the sin (Torahlessness) that will not only hurt them and others now, but will damn them to the lake of fire for eternity. In brief, he hates those things which destroy or make impossible a loving relationship with him—our Heavenly Father (see 1 John 1:9–2:2).
Should we hate the workers of iniquity as YHVH does?
There are levels and degrees of sin and sinfulness. We must love the things Yah loves and hates the things he hates. The problem is knowing when and how to hate not only the sin but also the sinner. It’s not that these are to be separated, but how do we separate them in our minds without falling into sin ourself—the sin of pride, the sin of thinking we’re better than the next guy, the sin of hypocritical judgmentalism, the sin of hating someone when we should be loving them? So as not unwittingly to fall into these sin traps, it is safer for us, in most cases, to love the sinner and hate the sin.
When Yah hates the workers of iniquity, this is a class of people who are so sold out to sin that they have become reprobate. They are hell-bent,and there’s no stopping them. Most people aren’t that far gone spiritually and there is still hope for them the repent. If we hate all sinners, then how are we to have the right perspective and heart attitude to be able to love them into the truth?
John 3:16 says that YHVH so loved the world…. That means, in a general sense, he loves everyone—even the sinners, which is why he sent Yeshua. He loved us while we were yet sinners (Rom 5:8). So he loves everyone, but he hates those who, again, are so sold out to sin, like Satan, that they are beyond redemption.
David talks about hating with a perfect hatred (Ps 139:22). This involves hating those who hate YHVH. Most people don’t really hate YHVH, but some do. This is the hatred with which Yah hates. It’s a hatred that is not sinful. I don’t know that we’re capable of that in most cases without ourselves falling into sin. That’s why, in most cases, it’s better to stay on safer ground and to hate the sin and not the sinner.
Kind of like “be angry and sin not” when you’re angry with someone because of what they did but it doesn’t mean you don’t still love them.
Have been studing this thank you for some insight. From studing all the scriptures I could see that Yah does hate but the question I kept asking myself is, ” how far do we as humans created by Yah take this?”. Again thank you. Shalom
“David said, “I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies” (Ps 139:22). The “them” here is referring to the enemies of Elohim, who should also be our enemies (v. 20). What is a perfect hatred? Not sure. Yeshua said to love our enemies and pray for them. I’d prefer to do the the latter for fear of stepping over the sin-line and hating Yah’s enemies with an imperfect and sinful hatred. So I don’t hate. YHVH can and does, though. That was the point of this post. That’s not a side of Elohim with which most in the church are familiar. That’s the only reason why I brought this subject up.
It is written: ‘Ya’akov I loved, but Esav I hated’ (Romans 9:13, Malachi 1:2&3)
Also in Luke 14:26 Yeshua says: ‘If anyone comes to me and doesn’t hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children…………, he cannot be my talmid.
That sounds terrible; however, I have read in some study guides that in some instances like those above, the word ‘hate’ rather means to ‘love less’ (a Hebrew idiom).
Sonja
The name of the son is Yahushua by the way. But interesting topic though. Agreed that the Most High Yah hates sin as sinners as well. Is not what is teaching in the mainstream Christianity. Some puppets pastors and preachers are deceiving their church members by telling them that God loves them despise their sinnful lives and their disobedience toward the Torah.
You can call him Yahushua if you want, but I challenge you to find this name in your Hebrew Bible. Unless I (along with hundreds of Hebrew Christian and Jewish linguistic scholars over the millennia) have somehow missed something, I don’t think you will find Yahushua in the Bible. One can find the name Yeshua, however, numerous times if you know how to read a little Hebrew or can use the Hebrew lexicons. That’s why I use Yeshua and not Yahushua. If we consider ourselves to be biblical Truth-seekers, it’s not accurate or acceptable to just make up Hebrew names of deity because it fits our theology, tradition or feelings. What we say, do and teach must be based on hard facts, evidence and truth otherwise our credibility is shot and we bring dishonor to Yehovah. Blessings.