psa 14:0 The sentiments of atheists and deists, who deny the doctrine of a Divine providence. Their character: they are corrupt, foolish, abominable, and cruel, Psa 14:1-4. God fills them with terror, Psa 14:5; reproaches them for their oppression of the poor, Psa 14:6. The psalmist prays for the restoration of Israel, Psa 14:7. There is nothing particular in the title; only it is probable that the word לדוד ledavid, of David, is improperly prefixed, as it is sufficiently evident, from the construction of the Psalm, that it speaks of the Babylonish captivity. The author, whoever he was, (some say Haggai, others Daniel, etc)., probably lived beyond the Euphrates. He describes here, in fervid colors, the iniquity of the Chald:eans. He predicts their terror and destruction; he consoles himself with the prospect of a speedy return from his exile; and hopes soon to witness the reunion of the tribes of Israel and Judah. It may be applied to unbelievers in general. Psalms 14:1
tPs 14::7O that the salvation - Or, more literally, Who will give from Zion salvation to Israel? From Zion the deliverance must come; for God alone can deliver them; but whom will he make his instruments? When the Lord bringeth back - For it is Jehovah alone who can do it. Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. That is, according to Calmet, the remains of the kingdom of Israel and those of Judah, shall be rejoined, to their mutual satisfaction, and become one people, worshipping the same God; and he has endeavoured to prove, in a dissertation on the subject, that this actually took place after the return from the Babylonish captivity. Many of the fathers have understood this verse as referring to the salvation of mankind by Jesus Christ; and so it is understood by my old MS. Psalter, as the following paraphrase will show: Qwa sal gyf of Syon hele til Israel? qwen Lord has turned a way the captyfte of his folk, glad sal Jacob, and fayne be Israel. Qwa bot Crist that ge despyse, qwen ge wit nout do his counsaile of Syon fra heven, sal gyf hele til Israel? that es, sal saf al trew cristen men, noght als ge er that lufs noght God. And qwen our Lord has turned o way the captyfte of his folk: that es, qwen he has dampned the devel, and al his Servaundes, the qwilk tourmentes gude men, and makes tham captyfs in pyne. Then glade sal Jacob; that es, al that wirstils o gayns vices and actyf: and fayne sal be Israel: that es, al that with the clene egh of thair hert, sees God in contemplatyf lyf. For Jacob es als mikil at say als, Wrestler, or suplanter of Syn. Israel es, man seand God. Of the two chief opinions relative to the design of this Psalm: 1. That it refers to Absalom's rebellion. 2. That it is a complaint of the captives in Babylon; I incline to the latter, as by far the most probable. I have referred, in the note on Psa 14:3, to that remarkable addition of no less than six verses, which is found here in the Vulgate, the Vatican copy of the Septuagint, the Ethiopic, and the Arabic, and also in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Rom 3:13-18, which he is supposed to have quoted from this Psalm as it then stood in the Hebrew text; or in the version of the Seventy, from which it has been generally thought he borrowed them. That they are not interpolations in the New Testament is evident from this, that they are not wanting in any MS. yet discovered; and they exist in all the ancient versions, the Vulgate, Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic. Yet it has been contended, particularly by St. Jerome, that St. Paul did not quote them from this Psalm; but, being intent on showing the corruption and misery of man, he collected from different parts several passages that bore upon the subject, and united them here, with his quotation from Psa 14:3, as if they had all belonged to that place: and that succeeding copyists, finding them in Romans, as quoted from that Psalm, inserted them into the Septuagint, from which it was presumed they had been lost. It does not appear that they made a part of this Psalm in Origen's Hexapla. In the portions that still exist of this Psalm there is not a word of these additional verses referred to in that collection, neither here nor in the parallel Psa 53:1-6. The places from which Jerome and others say St. Paul borrowed them are the following: - Rom 3:13 : "Their mouth is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit." Borrowed from Psa 5:10. "The poison of asps is under their lips." From Psa 140:3. Rom 3:14 : "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." From Psa 10:7. Rom 3:15 : "Their feet are swift to shed blood." From Pro 1:16, or Isa 59:7. Rom 3:16-18 : "Destruction and misery are in their ways, the way of peace they have not known, and there is no fear of God before their eyes." From Isa 59:7, Isa 59:8. When the reader has collated all these passages in the original, he will probably feel little satisfaction relative to the probability of the hypothesis they are summoned to support. These verses are not found in the best copies of the Vulgate, though it appears they were in the old Itala or Antehieronymain version. They are not in the Codex Alexandrinus of the Septuagint; nor are they in either the Greek or Latin text of the Complutenstan Polyglot. They are wanting also in the Antwerp and Parisian Polyglots. They are neither in the Chald:ee nor Syriac versions. They are not acknowledged as a part of this Psalm by Theodoret, Chrysostom, Euthymius, Arnobius, Apollinaris, the Greek Catena, Eusebius, of Caesarea, nor Jerome. The latter, however, acknowledges that they were in his time read in the churches. I have seen no Latin MS. without them; and they are quoted by Justin Martyr and Augustine. They are also in the Editio Princeps of the Vulgate, and in all the ancient Psalters known. They are in that Psalter which I have frequently quoted, both in the Latino - Scotico - English version and paraphrase. Of this version the following is a faithful copy, beginning with the third verse of the fourteenth Psalm: - Al tha helddid togyher; thai er made unprofytable: Thar es none that dos gude; thar es none til one. A grave opynnand, es the throte of tham. With thaire tunges trycherusly thai wroght Venym of snakes undir the lippis of tham. Qwhas mouth es ful of werying and bitternes: Swyft thaire fete to spil blode. Brekyng and wikednes in thair waies: And the way of pees thai knew noght: The drede of God es noght byfore the eghen of thaim. There is a good deal of difference between this, and that version attributed to Wiclif, as it stands in my large MS. Bible, quoted in different parts of the New Testament, particularly in Co1 13:1, etc. I shall give it here line for line with the above. Alle boweden aweye to gydre: thei ben maad unprofitable: There is not that doith good thing, ther is not to oon. A Sepulcre opnyng is the throote of hem: With her tungis thei diden gylinly; or trecherously: The venym of eddris, that is clepid Aspis, under her lippis: The mouth of whom is ful of cursing, or worrying and bittrenesse: The feet of hem ben swift to schede out blood: Contricion or defouling to God, and infelicite or cursidnesse, the wayes of hem; And thei knewen not the weyes of pees; The dreed of God is not bifore her ygen. The words underlined in the above are added by the translator as explanatory of the preceding terms. It is worthy of remark that Coverdale inserts the whole of the addition in this Psalm, and Cardmarden has inserted it in his Bible, but in a letter different from the text. It is now time to state what has been deemed of considerable importance to the authenticity of these verses; viz., that they are found in a Hebrew MS., numbered by Kennicott in his catalogue 649. It is in the public library at Leyden; contains the Psalms with a Latin version and Scholia; and appears to have been written about the end of the fourteenth century and probably by some Christian. I shall give the text with a literal translation, as it stands in this MS., line for line with the preceding: - קבר פתוח גרונם An open sepulcher is their throat; לשונם יחליקיו With their tongues they flatter; חמת עכשוב תחת לשונם The venom of the asp is under their tongue; אשר פיהם אלה ומרמה מלא Whose mouth of cursing and bitterness is full; קלו רגליהם לשפוך דם Swift are their feet to shed blood; מזל רע ופגע רע בדרכיהם An evil aspect, and an evil event, in their ways: ודרך שלום לא ידעו And the way of peace they know not. אי פחד אלהים לנגר עיניהם No fear of God before their eyes. It would be easy to criticise upon the Hebrew In this long quotation. I shall content myself with what Calmet, who received his information from others that had inspected the Leyden MS., says of this addition: "Les seavans, qui ont examine ce manuscrit, y ont remarque un Hebreu barbare en cet endroit; et des facons de parler, qui ne sentent point les siecles ou la langue Hebraique etoit en usage." "Learned men, who have examined this MS., have remarked a barbarous Hebraism in this place, and modes of speech which savor not of those ages in which the Hebrew language was in use." If this be an interpolation in the Psalm, it is very ancient; as we have the testimony of Jerome, who was prejudiced against it, that it was read in all the churches in his time, and how long before we cannot tell. And that these verses are a valuable portion of Divine revelation, as they stand in Rom 3:13-18, none can successfully deny. See Rosenmuller, Kennicott, and De Rossi. Next: Psalms Chapter 15
tPs 14::1 The fool hath said in his heart,.... This is to be understood not of a single individual person, as Nabal, which is the word here used; nor of some Gentile king, as Sennacherib, or Rabshakeh his general, as Theodoret; nor of Nebuchadnezzar, nor of Titus, as some Jewish writers (y) interpret it, making one to be here intended, and the other in the fifty third psalm: the same with this; but of a body, a set of men, who justly bear this character; and design not such who are idiots, persons void of common sense and understanding; but such who are fools in their morals, without understanding in spiritual things; wicked profligate wretches, apostates from God, alienated from the life of God; and whose hearts are full of blindness and ignorance, and whose conversations are vile and impure, and they enemies of righteousness, though full of all wicked subtlety and mischief: these say in their hearts, which are desperately wicked, and out of which evil thoughts proceed, pregnant with atheism and impiety; these endeavour to work themselves into such a belief, and inwardly to conclude, at least to wish, there is no God; though they do not express it with their mouths, yet they would fain persuade their hearts to deny the being of God; that so having no superior to whom they are accountable, they may go on in sin with impunity; however, to consider him as altogether such an one as themselves, and to remove such perfections from him, as may render him unworthy to be regarded by them; such as omniscience, omnipresence, &c. and to conceive of him as entirely negligent of and unconcerned about affairs of this lower world, having nothing to do with the government of it: and thus to deny his perfections and providence, is all one as to deny his existence, or that there is a God: accordingly the Targum paraphrases it, "there is no "government" of God in the earth;'' so Kimchi interprets it, "there is no governor, nor judge in the world, to render to man according to his works;'' they are corrupt; that is, everyone of these fools; and it is owing to the corruption of their hearts they say such things: they are corrupt in themselves; they have corrupt natures, they are born in sin, and of the flesh, and must be carnal and corrupt: or "they do corrupt", or "have corrupted" (z): they corrupt themselves by their atheistic thoughts and wicked practices, Jde 1:10; or their works, as the Chald:ee paraphrase adds; or their ways, their manner and course of life, Gen 6:12; and they corrupt others with their evil communications, their bad principles and practices, their ill examples and wicked lives; they have done abominable works: every sinful action is abominable in the sight of God; but there are some sins more abominable than others; there are abominable idolatries, and abominable lusts, such as were committed in Sodom; and it may be these are pointed at here, and which are usually committed by such who like not to retain God in their knowledge; see Rom 1:24; there is none that doeth good; anyone good work in a spiritual manner; not in faith, from love, in the name and strength of Christ, and with a view to the glory of God: nor can any man do a good work without the grace of God, and strength from Christ, and the assistance of the Spirit of God: hence, whatsoever a wicked man does, whether in a civil or in a religious way, is sin; see Pro 21:4. Arama takes these to be the words of the fool, or atheist, saying, there is no God that does good, like those in Zep 1:12. (y) Vid. Jarchi, Kimchi & Ben Melech in loc. (z) "corruperunt", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Gejerus; "corrumpunt", Junius & Tremellius; "corrumpunt se", Piscator. Psalms 14:2