Psalms 53:4

Verse Psalms 53:4. _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 Psalms 14:3. 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.

HAVE THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY NO KNOWLEDGE? - See the notes at Psalms 14:4. The only change in this verse is in the omission of the word “all.” This word, as it occurs in Psalms 14:1 (“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 Psalms 14:1 is stronger than in the revised form of the psalm before us....

EXPOSITION THIs psalm is a repetition of Psalms 45:1; with certain not very important variations. The most remarkable is the substitution throughout of" Elohim" for "Jehovah." The only variations which alter the sense are in Psalms 45:5. These cannot be accounted for by corruption, and seem to indicate a retouching of the original composition in order to adapt it to a special occasion. The expression, "upon Mahalath," or, "set to Mahalath," in the title, is thought to be a musical direction, and is explained by Dr. Kay as equivalent to the modern _Maestoso._ PSALMS 53:1 AND...

HAVE THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY NO KNOWLEDGE?.... In Psalms 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, 2 Thessalonians 2:10 Psalms 14:4; WHO EAT UP MY PEOPLE, [AS] THEY EAT BREAD; and drink their blood, and are drunken with it, Revelation 17:6; THEY HAVE NOT CALLED UPON GOD; but upon their idols, upon the Virgin Mary, and saints departed. In...

Psalms 53 The Apostasy Under the Man of Sin This Psalm is in greater part the same as the fourteenth. It is the description of the apostasy, the complete turning away from God and opposition to God, which will hold sway when Satan's mighty man is on the earth. Then the godly remnant will sigh for the coming of salvation out of Zion....

LIII. See Psalms 14....

THE WORKERS. Some codices, with two early printed editions, Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read "all the workers". INIQUITY. Hebrew. _'avah._ App-44....

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. Psalms 53:2, and Psalms 82:5. But a much better connexion with Psalms 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 Psalms 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. Hosea 9:7;...

PSALMS 53, 54 Psalms 53 (Lm.) An Instructive-psalmBy David. (_N.B.For Title, Analysis and Exposition of this psalm, see Psalms 14_, _with which this psalm is practically identicalthis being an Elohistic recension of that._) 1 Said a vile person in his heartNo God here! their conduct is corrupt their practice abominable there is no well-doer! 2 God out of the heavens looked down over the sons of men, to see whether there was one that shewed understanding in seeking after God: 3 The whole have turned aside drawn back[586] together become tainted: [586] So Br., uniting the two verbs found, the one in Psalms 14:3 and the other in...

This is a second version of Psalms 14 with the important difference that GOD (_Elohim_) is everywhere substituted for the LORD (_Jehovah_). There are a few other variations and additions, especially in Psalms 53:5 (= Psalms 14:5). The changes are interesting chiefly as an illustration of the process of editing which was applied to many Pss. and many portions of the OT., and in particular of the consistent preferences, on the part of separate writers, for one divine name rather than another. Title.—MAHALATH] variously interpreted: (1) as a corruption of Alamoth (see PSALMS 46), (2) as the first word of the song to the