Psalms 53:4

Psa 53:4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people [as] they eat bread: they have not called upon God.

Ver. 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?] Etiam scient in fine, et dolebunt, saith one, Know they shall, to their sorrow, in the end, that they have eaten that on earth which they must digest in hell.

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.

5. (Psa 53:4). Do they not know—(these) workers of iniquity—eating my people (as) they eat bread—(and on) God call not? See above, on Psa 14:4. The only variation here, besides the change of the divine name which has been already mentioned, is the omission of the all before workers of iniquity. This has been noted by some critics as the only case in which the language of the fourteenth psalm is stronger than the parallel expression of the fifty-third.

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

David pronounceth God’s vengeance against cruel governors, who having charge to defend and preserve God’s people, do most cruelly devour them.

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

Verse 4. Have the workers of iniquity] For פעלי, poaley, workers seventy-two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., with several ancient editions, the Chaldee, though not noticed in the Latin translation in the London Polyglot, the Syriac, Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, and the Arabic, with the Anglo-Saxon, add the word כל col, all, - ALL the workers of iniquity; which is the reading in the parallel place in Ps 14:3-4. It may be necessary to observe, that the Chaldee, in the Antwerp and Paris Polyglots, and in that of Justinianus, has not the word כל col, ALL.

Have not called upon God] אלהים Elohim; but many MSS. have יהוה Jehovah, LORD.

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

(4) Notice the omission of the expressive “all” found in Psalms 14

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

4. God is the speaker. The first clause may be taken as in A.V., ‘Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?’ Are they so ignorant that they cannot distinguish between right and wrong? Cp. Psa_53:2, and Psa_82:5. But a much better connexion with Psa_53:5 is gained by rendering, Have not the workers of iniquity been made to know? i.e. taught by sharp experience to recognise their error. Then Psa_53:5 follows as an answer to the question, pointing to the plain white with the bones of Jerusalem’s besiegers. For this pregnant sense of know cp. Hos_9:7; Jdg_8:16 (taught, lit. made to know).

who eat up &c.] The A.V. follows the Ancient Versions in understanding this to mean, ‘they devour my people as naturally as they take their daily food.’ And this they do without regard to God (in Psalms 14, Jehovah). Cp. for the phrase, Num_14:9, “the people of the land are bread for us”; Num_24:8; and for the fact, Isa_1:7; Jer_10:25; Jer_30:16; Hab_3:14; Psa_79:7. The reference to national deliverance in the following verse excludes (at any rate in this recension of the Ps.) the explanation of ‘my people’ as the godly few in Israel (Mic_2:9; Mic_3:3; Mic_3:5, and often in the prophets), and of ‘the workers of iniquity’ as the nobles who impoverished them by unjust extortions (Mic_3:1 ff; Isa_3:14 f; Pro_30:14).

4, 5. The corruption of mankind exemplified in their treatment of God’s people; and His Providence demonstrated in the deliverance of them.

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.

Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?.... In Psa 14:4, it is, "have all the workers", &c. There are none of them but what have, unless given up to judicial blindness, and hardness of heart, to believe a lie, as antichrist and his followers, Th2 2:10; See Gill on Psa 14:4;

who eat up my people, as they eat bread; and drink their blood, and are drunken with it, Rev 17:6;

they have not called upon God; but upon their idols, upon the Virgin Mary, and saints departed. In Psa 14:4, it is, "upon the Lord".

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

Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? - See the notes at Psa 14:4. The only change in this verse is in the omission of the word “all.” This word, as it occurs in Psa 14:1-7 (“all the workers of iniquity”), makes the sentence stronger and more emphatic. It is designed to affirm in the most absolute and unqualified manner that none of these workers of iniquity had any true knowledge of God. This has been noticed by critics as the only instance in which the expression in Psa 14:1-7 is stronger than in the revised form of the psalm before us.

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

Ver. 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? They have no wisdom, certainly, but even so common a thing as knowledge might have restrained them. Can they not see that there is a God? that sin is an evil thing? that persecution recoils upon a man's own head? Are they such utter fools as not to know that they are their own enemies, and are ruining themselves?

Who eat up my people as they eat bread. Do they not see that such food will be hard to digest, and will bring on them a horrible vomit when God deals with them in justice? Can they imagine that the Lord will allow them to devour his people with impunity? They must be insane indeed.

They have not called upon God. They carry on their cruel enterprises against the saints, and use every means but that which is essential to success in every case, namely, the invocation of God. In this respect persecutors are rather more consistent than Pharisees who devoured widow's houses, and prayed too. The natural man, like Ishmael, loves not the spiritual seed, is very jealous of it, and would fain destroy it, because it is beloved of God; yet the natural man does not seek after the like favour from God. The carnal mind envies those who obtain mercy, and yet it will not seek mercy itself. It plays the dog in the manger. Sinners will out of a malicious jealousy devour those who pray, but yet they will not pray themselves.

Ver. 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Conscience is a means to curb and restrain, control and rebuke corrupt nature, and the swelling forms of it. It is not there as a native inhabitant, but as a garrison planted in a rebellious town by the great Governor of the world, to keep the rebellion of the inhabitants within compass, who else would break forth into present confusion. David, speaking of the corruption of man by nature, after this question, Whether there be not some knowledge to discover their evil doings to them? yes, says he, Have they no knowledge, who eat up my people as bread Yes; and therefore (Ps 53:5) They are often in fear, God having placed this there to overcome them with fear; and by that to restrain them from many outrages against God's people, whom in their desires, and sometimes practice, they eat up as bread Therefore this knowledge is put in as a bridle to corrupt nature, as a hook was put into Sennacherib's nostrils (Isa 37:29) to rule and tame men, and overcome them with fear. If they had no knowledge they would eat up one another, and the church, as bread; but there is their fear, says he, that is, thence it comes to pass they are kept in awe Thomas Goodwin, 1600-1679.

Ver. 4. Who eat up my people as they eat bread C'est, n'en font non plus de conscience, que de manger un morceau de pain. (That is, they have no more scruple in doing this than in eating a morsel of bread.) French Margin.

Ver. 4. My people. David may call the serious his people, because of his regard for them, and because they were his supporters and friends. They adhered to him in all his afflictions. ("Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God, " Ru 1:16.) Benjamin Boothroyd, 1836.

Ver. 4. How far knowledge is and is not a restraint upon ungodliness.

Ver. 4. It is a sin not to call upon God.

I. What is it to call upon God? Three things required

in it.

1. A drawing near to him.

2. A speaking to him. 1Sa 1:12-13.

3. A praying to him. II. How should we call upon God?

1. Reverently, considering (1) God's holiness and greatness; (2) our own sin and weakness. Ge 18:27.

2. Understandingly. 1Co 14:15. (1) Of what we ask. (2) Of whom we ask it.

3. Submissively.

4. Believingly. Mr 11:24 Jas 1:6.

5. Sincerely. Jas 4:3.

6. Constantly. (1) So as to be always in a praying frame. (2) So as to take all occasions of pouring forth our souls in prayer to God. (3) So as to let no day slip without prayer. III. How it appears to be a sin not to call upon God.

1. He hath commanded it. Isa 55:6 1Ti 2:8.

2. Because praying is one of the principal parts of worship we owe to God. I. Who are guilty of this sin?

1. All who pray to any one else but God.

2. All who neglect either public, private, or family prayer.

3. All who pray, but not aright. William Beveridge (1636-1708), in "Thesaurus Theologicus."

Psalms 53:5*

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

For "the workers of iniquity" in this verse, Psa 14: "For God is in the generation of the righteous a very considerable change, which must certainly have been intentional. On the second occasion whereto the psalm was made applicable, there must have been a very great catastrophe some vast slaughter of an enemy who had been at open war with Israel. Sennacherib is suggested (Canon Cook). Thou hast put them to shams, because God hath despised them. The clause in Psalm 14 which this replaces runs as follows: "Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his Refuge." Here again, both the phrases used, and the whole tenor of the thought in either case, are different.

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

Here in the first line the word כּל־, which, as in Psa 5:6; Psa 6:9, is in its right place, is wanting. In Psa 14:1-7 there then follow, instead of two tristichs, two distichs, which are perhaps each mutilated by the loss of a line. The writer who has retouched the Psalm has restored the tristichic symmetry that had been lost sight of, but he has adopted rather violent means: inasmuch as he has fused down the two distichs into a single tristich, which is as closely as possible adapted to the sound of their letters.

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.)

Do those who commit iniquity have no understanding—those ... God?

This question is used to show the shock that the writer feels because the people are so sinful. It can be written as two statements. "Those who commit iniquity act as though they do not know anything. They devour my people as if they were eating bread, and they do not call on God!" (See: Rhetorical Question)

those who devour my people as if they were eating bread

Destroying people is spoken of as devouring them. Doing it as if they were eating bread implies that they did it very easily or without feeling guilty about it. AT: "those who destroy my people as freely as if they were eating bread" (See: Metaphor and Simile)

God will scatter the bones of whoever will camp against you

Scattering people's bones represents killing them and allowing their bones to remain wherever they have died and not be buried properly. "God will completely destroy whoever will camp against you, and their bones will lie scattered on the ground" (See: Metonymy)

whoever will camp against you

Camping against people represents attacking them. Enemy armies would travel and set up camps to live in temporarily near the people they wanted to attack. AT: "whoever will attack you" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

iniquity

bread

call

fear

shame

reject

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

dross Heb. סג, an expression of סיגים, dross.

not even one of all his armies will protest against his deeds.

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.