Psalms 14:3

(3) Filthy.—Better, corrupt or putrid. Comp. the Roman satirist’s description of his age:—

“Nothing is left, nothing for future times

To add to the full catalogue of crimes.

The baffled sons must feel the same desires

And act the same mad follies as their sires.

Vice has attained its zenith.”—JUVENAL: Sat. i.

Between Psa_14:3-4 the Alexandrian MS. of the LXX., followed by the Vulg. and the English Prayer-book version, and the Arabic, insert from Rom_3:13-18, the passage beginning, “Their throat is an open sepulchre.” The fact of these verses, which are really a cento from various psalms and Isaiah, following immediately on the quotation of Psa_14:2-3, led the copyist to this insertion. (See Note in New Testament Commentary to Rom_3:13.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 14:3 They are all gone aside, they are [all] together become filthy: [there is] none that doeth good, no, not one.

Ver. 3. They are all gone aside, &c.] This is God’s own report of the matter, fully answering to that before given in by David, Psa 14:1. Good men have the mind of Christ, 1Co 2:16, and do fully concur with him in judgment and affection. David was a man after God’s own heart; and the heart of Paul is the heart of Christ, saith Chrysostom. But why, then, doth not David except himself out of this universitas declinantium, community of stragglers that are gone aside? and why doth St Paul argue from this text that all, both Jews and Gentiles, are stark naught? Rom 3:10-12. I answer, because by nature there is never a better of us; but κακοι μεν θριπες κακοι ηδε και ιπες, as the Greek proverb hath it. "All we like sheep have gone astray," saith the whole Church, Isa 53:6 Homo est inversus decalogus, we naturally all stand across to all goodness. The word here rendered gone aside signifieth to give back sturdily, as a stubborn heifer, that refuseth to receive the yoke.

They are altogether become filthy] Heb. stinking, yielding a worse smell than carrion doth, or than the filthy fox doth, of whom Oppianus reporteth (and experience showeth it to be true), that when he is beset on all sides by the dogs that hunt him, he bewrayeth his tail with urine and dung, of a most loathsome smell, and besmearing therewith the dogs’ noses, driveth them away therewith many times (Bodin. Theat. Nat. 352). But all this is nothing to the filth and stench of sin, which made their very incense an abomination, Isa 1:13; and rendereth them most like the devil, that foul spirit, that ever goeth out with a stench, as they say of him. The Hebrews have the same word for sin and a dead carcase; and again the same word for sin and stench. פנר ξηψ God’s vineyard brought forth stinking grapes, באשׁים Isa 5:5, and the wicked utter rotten language, Dογος σαπρος, Eph 5:4 Hence Longinquus est Iehovah ab impiis, The Lord stands aloof off from the wicked, Pro 15:29 Psa 5:5, that is, from all for whom Christ hath not given himself "an offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour," Eph 5:2. The apostle rendereth it, they are useless, ηχρειωθησον, or, as he elsewhere phraseth it, "to every good work reprobate," Tit 1:16.

There is none that doeth good] Spiritually good, and unto divine acceptation. There is many times malum opus in bona materia. How can you that are evil do good works? Good they may be materially, but not formally and eventually; such were the good parts and practices of Socrates, Aristides, Scipio, Atticus, Cato, and other honest heathens; they were no better than splendida peccata, glistering sins, because they failed,

1. Quoad fontem, they did not out of the good treasure of their hearts bring forth those good things; they were strangers to the life of God, to the new nature.

2. Quoad finem, they brought forth fruit to themselves, Hos 10:1, they had not good aims in their good actions. Now, Bonum non sit nisi ex integra causa; malum ex quolibet defectu, say the schools.

No, not one] Usque ad unum, i.e. ad Christum, saith Austin, not considering the force of the Hebrew phrase, which importeth an utter denial of any mere man that of himself doeth good.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_14:3

They are all gone aside.

Man falls lower and lower

The mind end heart having gone astray--having been turned aside like a deceitful bow,--nothing became easier than to sink into ever-deepening abysses of iniquity; the case is put also negatively, so as to fill up the measure of the great accusation, There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Man cannot stop in a morally negative condition. Again and again this solemn lesson has been forced upon us by the whole current of history, and yet an insidious temptation assails the heart with the thought that it is still possible to forsake religious convictions and professions, and yet to preserve a pure and noble life. The backslider and the truth seeker must never be regarded as one and the same person. God having been surrendered as the supreme thought of the mind and the supreme rule of conduct, a scene of infinite confusion presented itself: workers of iniquity carried on their evil service as if in darkness; their mouths were opened in cruelty upon any who feared and worshipped God; the counsel of the poor was treated with contempt, and the poor themselves were devoured rapaciously. Where reverence has been abandoned it has been impossible to sustain true and self-sacrificing philanthropy. In this case reverence has been formally given up, and so a great act of moral spoliation has been accomplished. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)

There is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Man fallen and depraved

I. The inborn depravity of our nature.

1. What saith the Scripture?

2. The records of human experience are to the same effect. See the moral misery of the world. Look at the evidence of our inborn depravity in the manifold outbreakings of wickedness in every age and circumstance of life. Notice also the corruption and infirmity which is found remaining even in good men. We cannot read the sins of Abraham, and David, and Peter, and Moses without many painful and humiliating thoughts. Who can stand if they fell?

II. In what does this original depravity of our nature chiefly consist?

1. In the depravation of our intellectual faculties. The mind of our race has become blinded. Civilisation gives no Divine knowledge.

2. In the perversion and rebellion of the will. By the will we understand the commanding faculty of the soul by which it chooses or rejects anything that may be offered to it.

3. In our disordered and alienated affections. Such a threefold cord against God and holiness we might well fear could not be broken. But thanks be to God, there is one who can break it. Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. (D. Moore, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 14:3. They are all gone aside — From God and the rule he hath given them to walk by, from truth into error, and from duty into sin; from the paths of wisdom and righteousness. They are altogether become filthy, loathsome, and abominable before God.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. (Psa 14:3) The whole has apostatised; together they have putrefied; there is none doing good; there is not even one. Total and universal corruption could not be more clearly expressed than by this accumulation of the strongest terms, in which, as Luther well observes, the Psalmist, not content with saying all, adds together, and then negatively, no not one. It is plain that he had no limitation or exception in his mind, but intended to describe the natural condition of all men, in the widest and most unrestricted sense. The whole, not merely all the individuals as such, but the entire race as a totality or ideal person.—The whole (race) has departed, not merely from the right way, but from God, instead of seeking him, as intimated in Psa 14:4. Together, not merely altogether or without exception, but in union and by one decisive act or event. The etymological import of the verb is to turn sour, to spoil. It is applied to moral depravation not only here, but in Job 15:16. The Septuagint version of these words is quoted by Paul in Rom 3:12, as a part of his scriptural description of human depravity, the rest of which is taken from Psa 5:10 (9), Psa 10:7; Psa 36:2 (1), 140:4, Isa 59:7-8. Under the false impression that he meant to quote a single passage, some early Christian copyist appears to have introduced the whole into the Septuagint version of this psalm, where it is still found in the Codex Vaticanus, as well as in the Vulgate, and even in one or two Hebrew manuscripts of later date. The interpolation is also retained in the Anglican Psalter. It is evident, however, that the apostle's argument is strengthened by the fact of his proofs being drawn, not from one, but several parts of the Old Testament.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

David here maketh comparison between the faithful and the reprobate, but S. Paul speaketh the same of all men naturally, Rom. 3:10.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

filthy--literally, "spoiled," or, "soured," "corrupted" (Job 15:16; Rom 3:12).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. They are all gone aside] They will not walk in the straight path. They seek crooked ways; and they have departed from truth, and the God of truth.

They are all together become filthy] נאלחו neelachu. They are become sour and rancid; a metaphor taken from milk that has fermented and turned sour, rancid, and worthless.

There is none that doeth good, no, not one.] This is not only the state of heathen Babylon! but the state of the whole inhabitants of the earth, till the grace of God changes their heart. By nature, and from nature, by practice, every man is sinful and corrupt. He feels no good; he is disposed to no good; he does no good. And even God himself, who cannot be deceived, cannot find a single exception to this! Lord, what is man?

The Vulgate, the Roman copy of the Septuagint, the AEthiopic, and the Arabic, add those six verses here which are quoted by St. Paul, Ro 3:13-18. See the notes on those passages, and see the observations at the end of this Psalm. See Clarke on Ps 14:7.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Every one of them has gone aside. Some translate the word סר, sar, which is here used, to stink, Hammond admits that the word סר, sar, means to go aside, or to decline, and that it is commonly applied to a way or path, declining from the right way, or going in a wrong way. But he thinks that the idea here is different, that it is taken from wine when it grows dead or sour, just as the word is used in this sense in Hosea 4:18, סר סבאם, sar sobim, “Their drink is gone aside, or grown sour.” He considers this view corroborated from the clause which immediately follows, נאלחו, ne-elachu, they are become putrid, which is derived from אלה, alach, to be rotten or putrified, referring properly to flesh which has become putrid. “Thus,” says he, “the proportion is well kept between drink and meat, the one growing dead or sour, as the other putrifies and stinks, and then is good for nothing, but is thrown away.”

But it might be asked, how David makes no exception, how he declares that not a righteous person remains, not even one, when, nevertheless, he informs us, a little after, that the poor and afflicted put their trust in God? Again, it might be asked, if all were wicked, who was that Israel whose future redemption he celebrates in the end of the psalm? Nay, as he himself was one of the body of that people, why does he not at least except himself? I answer: It is against the carnal and degenerate body of the Israelitish nation that he here inveighs, and the small number constituting the seed which God had set apart for himself is not included among them. This is the reason why Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans 3:10, extends this sentence to all mankind. David, it is true, deplores the disordered and desolate state of matters under the reign of Saul. At the same time, however, he doubtless makes a comparison between the children of God and all who have not been regenerated by the Spirit, but are carried away according to the inclinations of their flesh. David speaks of all mankind, with the exception of the “people of God,” and “the generation of the righteous,” spoken of in verses 4, 5 who are opposed to the rest of the human race.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

3. The result of the investigation. All were turned aside from the path of right (Exo_32:8; Jdg_2:17): together had they become tainted, a word which in Arabic means to go bad or turn sour, but in Hebr. is used only in a moral sense, here and in Job_15:16.

Three verses follow here in the P.B.V. which are not in the Hebrew text, and are rightly omitted in the A.V. The first three verses of the Psalm are quoted by St Paul in Rom_3:10-12, in proof of the universal depravity of mankind. He supplements them by further quotations from Psa_5:9; Psa_140:3; Psa_10:7; Isa_59:7-8; Psa_36:1 : and this cento of passages was at an early date interpolated in the LXX, from which it passed to the Vulgate, and thence to the P.B.V. The addition is found in the Vatican and Sinaitic MSS. (B and א), and other MSS. which represent the older unrevised text; but was rightly obelized by Origen, and has disappeared from the Alexandrian MS. (A) and the mass of later MSS.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They are all gone aside,.... As bankrupts, having run out their whole stock, and into debt, and have nothing to pay, nor make composition with, and are obliged to abscond, as Adam, Gen 3:8. The words in Psa 53:3 are, "everyone of them is gone back"; from God; have revolted from him, and turned their backs upon him, and have gone back from his commandment, despised his law, and cast away his word. The Apostle Paul interprets it, "they are all gone out of the way"; out of God's way, into their own way; out of the path of truth, righteousness, and holiness, into the way of sin, error, darkness, and death; and with this agrees the interpretation of Aben Ezra, who adds, "out of the right way"; and of Kimchi and Ben Melech, whose gloss is, "out of the good way"; which is God's way, or the way of his commandments;

they are all together become filthy, or "stinking" (a), like putrid and corrupt flesh; see Psa 38:5; and so "unprofitable", useless, and good for nothing, as the apostle renders it, Rom 3:12. Mankind are universally filthy and unclean; they are all of them defiled with sin, both in soul and body, in all the faculties of their souls and members of their bodies; and they are originally and naturally so; nor can anything cleanse them from their pollution but the blood of Christ;

there is none that doeth good, no, not one: this is repeated partly to asseverate more strongly the depravity of mankind, and partly to express the universality of it; that there is no exception to it in any that descend from Adam by ordinary generation. Here follows in the Septuagint version, according to the Vatican copy, all those passages quoted by the apostle, Rom 3:13; which have been generally supposed to have been taken from different parts of Scripture; so the Syriac scholiast says, in some ancient Greek copies are found eight more verses, and these are they, "Their throat", &c.

(a) "faetnerunt, putruerunt", Pagninus; "aut putruerunt", Vatabulus; "putidi vel foetidi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

They are all gone aside - This verse states the result of the divine investigation referred to in the previous verse. The result, as seen by God himself, was, that “all” were seen to have gone aside, and to have become filthy. The word rendered “gone aside” means properly to go off, to turn aside or away, to depart; as, for example, to turn out of the right way or path, Exo 32:8. Then it means to turn away from God; to fall away from his worship; to apostatize, 1Sa 12:20; 2Ki 18:6; 2Ch 25:27. This is the idea here - that they had all apostatized from the living God. The word “all” in the circumstances makes the statement as universal as it can be made; and no term could be used more clearly affirming the doctrine of universal depravity.

They are all together become filthy - The word “all” here is supplied by the translators. It was not necessary, however, to introduce it in order that the idea of universal depravity might be expressed, for that is implied in the word rendered “together,” יחדו yachedâv. That word properly conveys the idea that the same character or conduct pervaded all, or that the same thing might be expressed of all those referred to. They were united in this thing - that they bad become defiled or filthy. The word is used with reference to “persons,” as meaning that they are all “in one place,” Gen 13:6; Gen 22:6; or to “events,” as meaning that they occurred at one time, Psa 4:8. They were all as one. Compare 1Ch 10:6. The idea is that, in respect to the statement made, they were alike. What would describe one would describe all. The word rendered “become filthy” is, in the margin, rendered “stinking.” In Arabic the word means to become “sharp,” or “sour” as milk; and hence, the idea of becoming corrupt in a moral sense. Gesenius, Lexicon. The word is found only here, and in the parallel Psa 53:3, and in Job 15:16, in each of which places it is rendered “filthy.” It relates here to character, and means that their character was morally corrupt or defiled. The term is often used in that sense now.

There is none that doeth good, no, not one - Nothing could more clearly express the idea of universal depravity than this expression. It is not merely that no one could be found who did good, but the expression is repeated to give emphasis to the statement. This entire passage is quoted in Rom 3:10-12, in proof of the doctrine of universal depravity. See the note at that passage.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Gone aside, to wit, from God, whom they should have sought, Psa 14:2, and from the rule which he hath given them, and by which they sometimes professed and seemed to govern themselves. Or, are grown sour, as this word signifies, Hos 4:18. And so this is a metaphor from corrupted drinks, as the next is taken from rotten meat.

Filthy, Heb. stinking i.e. loathsome and abominable to God, and to all wise and sober men.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 3. They are all gone aside. Without exception, all men have apostatized from the Lord their Maker, from his laws, and from all the eternal principles of right. Like stubborn heifers they have sturdily refused to receive the yoke, like errant sheep they have found a gap and left the right field. The original speaks of the race as a whole, as a totality; and humanity as a whole has become depraved in heart and defiled in life.

They have altogether become filthy; as a whole they are spoiled and soured like corrupt leaven, or, as some put it, they have become putrid and even stinking. The only reason why we do not more clearly see this foulness is because we are accustomed to it, just as those who work daily among offensive odours at last cease to smell them. The miller does not observe the noise of his own mill, and we are slow to discover our own ruin and depravity. But are there no special cases, are all men sinful? "Yes, "says the Psalmist, in a manner not to be mistaken, "they are." He has put it positively, he repeats it negatively,

There is none that doeth good, no, not one. The Hebrew phrase is an utter denial concerning any mere man that he of himself doeth good. What can be more sweeping? This is the verdict of the all seeing Jehovah, who cannot exaggerate or mistake. As if no hope of finding a solitary specimen of a good man among the unrenewed human family might be harboured for an instant. The Holy Spirit is not content with saying all and altogether, but adds the crushing threefold negative, "none, no, not one." What say the opponents to the doctrine of natural depravity to this? Rather what do we feel concerning it? Do we not confess that we by nature are corrupt, and do we not bless the sovereign grace which has renewed us in the spirit of our minds, that sin may no more have dominion over us, but that grace may rule and reign?

Ver. 3. The ungodly are "vile" persons (Na 1:14). "I will make thy grave; for thou art vile." Sin makes men base, it blots their name, it taints their blood: They are altogether become filthy; in the Hebrew it is, they are become stinking. Call wicked men ever so bad, you cannot call them out of their name; they are "swine" (Mt 7:6); "vipers" (Mt 3:7); "devils" (Joh 6:70). The wicked are the dross and refuse (Ps 119:119); and heaven is too pure to have any dross mingle with it. Thomas Watson.

Ver. 3. Altogether become filthy. Thus the Roman satirist describes his own age:

"Nothing is left, nothing, for future times To add to the full catalogue of crimes;

The baffled sons must feel the same desires, And act the same mad follies as their sires, Vice has attained its zenith."

Juvenal, Sat. 1.

Ver. 3. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Origen maketh a question, how it could be said that there was none, neither among the Jews nor Gentiles, that did any good; seeing there were many among them which did clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and did other good things: he hereunto maketh this answer: That like as one that layeth a foundation, and buildeth upon it a wall or two, yet cannot be said to have built a house till he have finished it; so although these might do some good things, yet they attained not unto perfect goodness, which was only to be found in Christ. But this is not the apostle's meaning only to exclude men from the perfection of justice; for even the faithful and believers were short of that perfection which is required; he therefore showeth what men are by nature, all under sin and in the same state of damnation, without grace and faith in Christ: if any perform any good work, either it is of grace, and so not of themselves, or if they did it by the light of nature, they did it not as they ought, and so it was far from a good work indeed. Andrew Willet (1562-1621), on Ro 3:10.

Ver. 3. Total depravity of the race.

Psalms 14:4*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

They are all gone aside. Haccol (lKoh), "the totality one and all of them had turned aside, like the Israelites at Sinai; (Exo_32:8) they had quitted the way of righteousness, and turned to wicked courses. The expression "denotes a general all but universal-corruption" ("Speaker"s Commentary"). They are all together become filthy; literally, sour, rancid like milk that has turned, or butter that has become bad. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. St. Paul"s application of this passage, (Rom_3:10-12) to prove that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (ver. 23), goes beyond the intention of the psalmist.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gone - From God, and from the rule which he hath given them. Filthy - Loathsome and abominable to God.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The third tristich bewails the condition in which He finds humanity. The universality of corruption is expressed in as strong terms as possible. הכּל they all (lit., the totality); יחדּו with one another (lit., in its or their unions, i.e., universi); אין גּם־אחד not a single one who might form an exception. סר (probably not 3 praet. but partic., which passes at once into the finite verb) signifies to depart, viz., from the ways of God, therefore to fall away (ἀποστάτης). נאלח, as in Job 15:16, denotes the moral corruptness as a becoming sour, putrefaction, and suppuration. Instead of אין גּם־אחד, the lxx translates οὐκ ἔστιν ἕως ἑνός (as though it were עד־אחד, which is the more familiar form of expression). Paul quotes the first three verses of this Psalm (Rom 3:10-12) in order to show how the assertion, that Jews and heathen all are included under sin, is in accordance with the teaching of Scripture. What the psalmist says, applies primarily to Israel, his immediate neighbours, but at the same time to the heathen, as is self-evident. What is lamented is neither the pseudo-Israelitish corruption in particular, nor that of the heathen, but the universal corruption of man which prevails not less in Israel than in the heathen world. The citations of the apostle which follow his quotation of the Psalm, from τάφος ἀνεῳγμένος to ἀπέναντι τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτῶν were early incorporated in the Psalm in the Κοινή of the lxx. They appear as an integral part of it in the Cod. Alex., in the Greco-Latin Psalterium Vernonense, and in the Syriac Psalterium Mediolanense. They are also found in Apollinaris' paraphrase of the Psalms as a later interpolation; the Cod. Vat. has them in the margin; and the words σύντπιμμα καὶ ταλαιπωρία ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν have found admittance in the translation, which is more Rabbinical than Old Hebrew, מזּל רע וּפגע רע בּדרכיהם even in a Hebrew codex (Kennicott 649). Origen rightly excluded this apostolic Mosaic work of Old Testament testimonies from his text of the Psalm; and the true representation of the matter is to be found in Jerome, in the preface to the xvi. book of his commentary on Isaiah.

(Note: Cf. Plschke's Monograph on the Milanese Psalterium Syriacum, 1835, p. 28-39.)

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

All have turned away, etc. Not one man of his armies protested against him.

they have spoiled Heb. נאלחו, have turned to rot.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.