Psalms 53:3

Every one of them is gone back - See the notes at Psalms 14:3. The only variation here in the two psalms is in the substitution of the word - סג sâg, for סור sûr - words almost identical in form and in sense. The only difference in meaning is, that the former word - the word used here - means “to draw back,” or “to go back;” the other, the word used in Psalms 14:1, means “to go off, to turn aside.” Each of them indicates a departure from God; a departure equally fatal and equally guilty, whether people turn “back” from following him, or turn “aside” to something else. Both of these forms of apostasy occur with lamentable frequency.