{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/kad/psa014.htm","path":"bib/cmt/kad/psa014.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/kad/psa014.htm","text":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsh, [1857-78]\nThe Prevailing Corruption and the Redemption Desired\nJust as the general lamentation of Psa 12:1-8 assumes a personal character in Psa 13:1-6, so in Psa 14:1-7 it becomes again general; and the personal desire \u05d9\u05d2\u05dc \u05dc\u05d1\u05bc\u05d9, Psa 13:5, so full of hope, corresponds to \u05d9\u05d2\u05dc \u05d9\u05e2\u05e7\u05d1, which is extended to the whole people of God in Psa 14:7. Moreover, Psa 14:1-7, as being a gloomy picture of the times in which the dawn of the divine day is discernible in the background, is more closely allied to Psa 12:1-8 than to Psa 13:1-6, although this latter is not inserted between them without some recognised reason. In the reprobation of the moral and religious character of the men of the age, which Psa 14:1-7 has in common with Psa 12:1-8, we at once have a confirmation of the \u05dc\u05d3\u05d5\u05d3. But Psa 14:7 does not necessitate our coming down to the time of the Exile.\nIn Psa 53:1-6 we find this Psalm which is Jehovic, occurring again as Elohimic. The position of Psa 14:1-7 in the primary collection favours the presumption, that it is the earlier and more original composition. And since this presumption will bear the test of a critical comparison of the two Psalms, we may leave the treatment of Psa 53:1-6 to its proper place, without bringing it forward here. It is not as though Psa 14:1-7 were intact. It is marked out as seven three-line verses, but Psa 14:5 and Psa 14:6, which ought to be the fifth and sixth three lines, are only two; and the original form appears to be destroyed by some deficiency. The difficulty is got over in Psa 53:1-6, by making the two two-line verses into one three-line verse, so that it consists only of six three-line verses. And in that Psalm the announcement of judgment is applied to foreign enemies, a circumstance which has influenced some critics and led them astray in the interpretation of Psa 14:1-7.\nThe perfect \u05d0\u05de\u05e8, as in Psa 1:1; Psa 10:3, is the so-called abstract present (Ges. 126, 3), expressing a fact of universal experience, inferred from a number of single instances. The Old Testament language is unusually rich in epithets for the unwise. The simple, \u05e4\u05bc\u05ea\u05d9, and the silly, \u05db\u05bc\u05e1\u05d9\u05dc, for the lowest branches of this scale; the fool, \u05d0\u05d5\u05d9\u05dc, and the madman, \u05d4\u05d5\u05dc\u05dc, the uppermost. In the middle comes the notion of the simpleton or maniac, \u05e0\u05d1\u05dc - a word from the verbal stem \u05e0\u05d1\u05dc which, according as that which forms the centre of the group of consonants lies either in \u05e0\u05d1 (Genesis S. 636), or in \u05d1\u05dc (comp. \u05d0\u05d1\u05dc, \u05d0\u05d5\u05dc, \u05d0\u05de\u05dc, \u05e7\u05de\u05dc), signifies either to be extended, to relax, to become frail, to wither, or to be prominent, eminere, Arab. nabula; so that consequently \u05e0\u05d1\u05dc means the relaxed, powerless, expressed in New Testament language: \u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u1fe6\u03bc\u03b1 \u03bf\u1f50\u03ba \u1f14\u03c7\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1. Thus Isaiah (Isa 32:6) describes the \u05e0\u05d1\u05dc: \"a simpleton speaks simpleness and his heart does godless things, to practice tricks and to say foolish things against Jahve, to leave the soul of the hungry empty, and to refuse drink to the thirsty.\" Accordingly \u05e0\u05d1\u05dc is the synonym of \u05dc\u05e5 the scoffer (vid., the definition in Pro 21:24). A free spirit of this class is reckoned according to the Scriptures among the empty, hollow, and devoid of mind. The thought, \u05d0\u05d9\u05df \u05d0\u05dc\u05d4\u05d9\u05dd, which is the root of the thought and action of such a man, is the climax of imbecility. It is not merely practical atheism, that is intended by this maxim of the \u05e0\u05d1\u05dc. The heart according to Scripture language is not only the seat of volition, but also of thought. The \u05e0\u05d1\u05dc is not content with acting as though there were no God, but directly denies that there is a God, i.e., a personal God. The psalmist makes this prominent as the very extreme and depth of human depravity, that there can be among men those who deny the existence of a God. The subject of what follows are, then, not these atheists but men in general, among whom such characters are to be found: they make the mode of action, (their) doings, corrupt, they make it abominable. \u05e2\u05dc\u05d9\u05dc\u05d4, a poetical brevity of expression for \u05e2\u05dc\u05d9\u05dc\u05d5\u05ea\u05dd, belongs to both verbs, which have Tarcha and Mercha (the two usual conjunctives of Mugrash) in correct texts; and is in fact not used as an adverbial accusative (Hengstenberg and others), but as an object, since \u05d4\u05e9\u05c1\u05d4\u05d9\u05ea is just the word that is generally used in this combination with \u05e2\u05dc\u05d9\u05dc\u05d4 Zep 3:7 or, what is the same thing, \u05d3\u05bc\u05e8\u05da Gen 6:12; and \u05d4\u05ea\u05e2\u05d9\u05d1 (cf. Kg1 21:26) is only added to give a superlative intensity to the expression. The negative: \"there is none that doeth good\" is just as unrestricted as in Psa 12:2. But further on the psalmist distinguishes between a \u05d3\u05d5\u05e8 \u05e6\u05d3\u05d9\u05e7, which experiences this corruption in the form of persecution, and the corrupt mass of mankind. He means what he says of mankind as \u03ba\u03cc\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2, in which, at first the few rescued by grace from the mass of corruption are lost sight of by him, just as in the words of God, Gen 6:5, Gen 6:12. Since it is only grace that frees any from the general corruption, it may also be said, that men are described just as they are by nature; although, be it admitted, it is not hereditary sin but actual sin, which springs up from it, and grows apace if grace do not interpose, that is here spoken of.\nThe second tristich appeals to the infallible decision of God Himself. The verb \u05d4\u05e9\u05c1\u05e7\u05d9\u05e3 means to look forth, by bending one's self forward. It is the proper word for looking out of a window, Kg2 9:30 (cf. Niph. Jdg 5:28, and frequently), and for God's looking down from heaven upon the earth, Psa 102:20, and frequently; and it is cognate and synonymous with \u05d4\u05e9\u05c1\u05d2\u05bc\u05d9\u05d7, Psa 33:13, Psa 33:14; cf. moreover, Sol 2:9. The perf. is used in the sense of the perfect only insofar as the divine survey is antecedent to its result as given in Psa 14:3. Just as \u05d4\u05e9\u05c1\u05d4\u05d9\u05ea\u05d5\u05bc reminds one of the history of the Flood, so does \u05dc\u05e8\u05d0\u05d5\u05ea of the history of the building of the tower of Babel, Gen 11:5, cf. Psa 18:21. God's judgment rests upon a knowledge of the matter of fact, which is represented in such passages after the manner of men. God's all-seeing, all-piercing eyes scrutinise the whole human race. Is there one who shows discernment in thought and act, one to whom fellowship with God is the highest good, and consequently that after which he strives? - this is God's question, and He delights in such persons, and certainly none such would escape His longing search. On \u05d0\u05ea\u05be\u05d0\u05dc\u05d4\u05d9\u05dd, \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u0398\u03b5\u03cc\u03bd, vid., Ges. 117, 2.\nThe third tristich bewails the condition in which He finds humanity. The universality of corruption is expressed in as strong terms as possible. \u05d4\u05db\u05bc\u05dc they all (lit., the totality); \u05d9\u05d7\u05d3\u05bc\u05d5 with one another (lit., in its or their unions, i.e., universi); \u05d0\u05d9\u05df \u05d2\u05bc\u05dd\u05be\u05d0\u05d7\u05d3 not a single one who might form an exception. \u05e1\u05e8 (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 (\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2). \u05e0\u05d0\u05dc\u05d7, as in Job 15:16, denotes the moral corruptness as a becoming sour, putrefaction, and suppuration. Instead of \u05d0\u05d9\u05df \u05d2\u05bc\u05dd\u05be\u05d0\u05d7\u05d3, the lxx translates \u03bf\u1f50\u03ba \u1f14\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd \u1f15\u03c9\u03c2 \u1f11\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2 (as though it were \u05e2\u05d3\u05be\u05d0\u05d7\u05d3, 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 \u03c4\u03ac\u03c6\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f00\u03bd\u03b5\u1ff3\u03b3\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 to \u1f00\u03c0\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f40\u03c6\u03b8\u03b1\u03bb\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd were early incorporated in the Psalm in the \u039a\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u03ae 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 \u03c3\u03cd\u03bd\u03c4\u03c0\u03b9\u03bc\u03bc\u03b1 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1\u03b9\u03c0\u03c9\u03c1\u03af\u03b1 \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f41\u03b4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd have found admittance in the translation, which is more Rabbinical than Old Hebrew, \u05de\u05d6\u05bc\u05dc \u05e8\u05e2 \u05d5\u05bc\u05e4\u05d2\u05e2 \u05e8\u05e2 \u05d1\u05bc\u05d3\u05e8\u05db\u05d9\u05d4\u05dd 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.\n(Note: Cf. Plschke's Monograph on the Milanese Psalterium Syriacum, 1835, p. 28-39.)\nThus utterly cheerless is the issue of the divine scrutiny. It ought at least to have been different in Israel, the nation of the positive revelation. But even there wickedness prevails and makes God's purpose of mercy of none effect. The divine outburst of indignation which the psalmist hears here, is applicable to the sinners in Israel. Also in Isa 3:13-15 the Judge of the world addresses Himself to the heads of Israel in particular. This one feature of the Psalm before us is raised to the consistency of a special prophetic picture in the Psalm of Asaph, Psa 82:1-8. That which is here clothed in the form of a question, \u05d4\u05dc\u05d0 \u05d9\u05d3\u05e2\u05d5\u05bc, is reversed into an assertion in Psa 82:5 of that Psalm. It is not to be translated: will they not have to feel (which ought to be \u05d9\u05d3\u05e2\u05d5\u05bc); but also not as Hupfeld renders it: have they not experienced. \"Not to know\" is intended to be used as absolutely in the signification non sapere, and consequently insipientem esse, as it is in Psa 82:5; Psa 73:22; Psa 92:7; Isa 44:18, cf. 9, Isa 45:20, and frequently. The perfect is to be judged after the analogy of novisse (Ges. 126, 3), therefore it is to be rendered: have they attained to no knowledge, are they devoid of all knowledge, and therefore like the brutes, yea, according to Isa 1:2-3 even worse than the brutes, all the workers of iniquity? The two clauses which follow are, logically at least, attributive clauses. The subordination of \u05d0\u05db\u05dc\u05d5\u05bc \u05dc\u05d7\u05dd to the participle as a circumstantial clause in the sense of \u05db\u05bc\u05d0\u05db\u05dc \u05dc\u05d7\u05dd is syntactically inadmissible; neither can \u05d0\u05db\u05dc\u05d5 \u05dc\u05d7\u05dd, with Hupfeld, be understood of a brutish and secure passing away of life; for, as Olshausen, rightly observes \u05d0\u05db\u05dc \u05dc\u05d7\u05dd does not signify to feast and carouse, but simply to eat, take a meal. Hengstenberg correctly translates it \"who eating my people, eat bread,\" i.e., who think that they are not doing anything more sinful, - indeed rather what is justifiable, irreproachable and lawful to them, - than when they are eating bread; cf. the further carrying out of this thought in Mic 3:1-3 (especially Mic 3:3 extr.: \"just as in the pot and as flesh within the caldron.\"). Instead of \u05dc\u05d0 \u05e7\u05e8\u05d0\u05d5\u05bc \u05d4 Jeremiah says in Jer 10:21 (cf. however, Jer 10:25): \u05dc\u05d0 \u05d3\u05e8\u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05bc \u05d5\u05d0\u05ea\u05be\u05d4. The meaning is like that in Hos 7:7. They do not pray as it becomes man who is endowed with mind, therefore they are like cattle, and act like beasts of prey.\nWhen Jahve thus bursts forth in scorn His word, which never fails in its working, smites down these brutish men, who are without knowledge and conscience. The local demonstrative \u05e9\u05c1\u05dd is used as temporal in this passage just as in Psa 66:6; Hos 2:17; Zep 1:14; Job 23:7; Job 35:12, and is joined with the perfect of certainty, as in Job 36:13, where it has not so much a temporal as a local sense. It does not mean \"there = at a future time,\" as pointing into the indefinite future, but \"there = then,\" when God shall thus speak to them in His anger. Intensity is here given to the verb \u05e4\u05bc\u05d7\u05d3 by the addition of a substantival object of the same root, just as is frequently the case in the more elevated style, e.g., Hab 3:9; and as is done in other cases by the addition of the adverbial infinitive. Then, when God's long-suffering changes into wrath, terror at His judgement seizes them and they tremble through and through. This judgment of wrath, however, is on the other hand a revelation of love. Jahve avenges and thus delivers those whom He calls \u05e2\u05de\u05bc\u05d9 (My people); and who are here called \u05d3\u05bc\u05d5\u05e8 \u05e6\u05d3\u05bc\u05d9\u05e7, the generation of the righteous, in opposition to the corrupted humanity of the time (Psa 12:8), as being conformed to the will of God and held together by a superior spirit to the prevailing spirit of the age. They are so called inasmuch as \u05d3\u05bc\u05d5\u05e8 passes over from the signification generatio to that of genus hominum here and also elsewhere, when it is not merely a temporal, but a moral notion; cf. Psa 24:6; Psa 83:15; Psa 112:2, where it uniformly denotes the whole of the children of God who are in bondage in the world and longing for deliverance, not Israel collectively in antithesis to the Scythians and the heathen in general (Hitzig).\nThe psalmist himself meets the oppressed full of joyous confidence, by reason of the self-manifestation of God in judgment, of which he is now become so confident and which so fills him with comfort. Instead of the sixth tristich, which we expected, we have another distich. The Hiph. \u05d4\u05d1\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1 with a personal object signifies: to put any one to shame, i.e., to bring it about that any one must be ashamed, e.g., Psa 44:8 (cf. Psa 53:6, where the accusative of the person has to be supplied), or absolutely: to act shamefully, as in the phrase used in Proverbs, \u05d1\u05bc\u05df \u05de\u05d9\u05d1\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1 (a prodigal son). It appears only here with a neuter accusative of the object, not in the signification to defame (Hitz.), - a meaning it never has (not even in Pro 13:5, where it is blended with \u05d4\u05d1\u05d0\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1 to make stinking, i.e., a reproach, Gen 34:30) - but to confound, put to shame = to frustrate (Hupf.), which is at once the most natural meaning in connection with \u05e2\u05e6\u05ea. But it is not to be rendered: ye put to shame, because..., for to what purpose is this statement with this inapplicable reason in support of it? The fut. \u05ea\u05bc\u05d1\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05bc is used with a like shade of meaning as in Lev 19:17, and the imperative elsewhere; and \u05db\u05bc\u05d9 gives the reason for the tacitly implied clause, or if a line is really lost from the strophe, the lost clause (cf. Isa 8:9.): ye will not accomplish it. \u05e2\u05e6\u05d4 is whatsoever the pious man, who as such suffers reproach, plans to do for the glory of his God, or even in accordance with the will of his God. All this the children of the world, who are in possession of worldly power, seek to frustrate; but viewed in the light of the final decision their attempt is futile: Jahve is his refuge, or, literally the place whither he flees to hide himself and finds a hiding or concealment (\u05e6\u05dc, Arab. dall, \u05e1\u05ea\u05e8, Arab. sitr, Arabic also dr\u00e2). \u05de\u05d7\u05e1\u05bc\u05d4\u05d5\u05bc has an orthophonic Dag., which obviates the necessity for the reading \u05de\u05d7\u05e1\u05bc\u05d4\u05d5\u05bc (cf. \u05ea\u05bc\u05e2\u05dc\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd Psa 10:1, \u05d8\u05e2\u05de\u05bc\u05d5 Psa 34:1, \u05dc\u05d0\u05e1\u05bc\u05e8 Psa 105:22, and similar instances).\nThis tristich sounds like a liturgical addition belonging to the time of the Exile, unless one is disposed to assign the whole Psalm to this period on account of it. For elsewhere in a similar connection, as e.g., in Psa 126:1-6, \u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05bc\u05d1 \u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea means to turn the captivity, or to bring back the captives. \u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05bc\u05d1 has here, - as in Psa 126:4; Psa 2:3 (followed by \u05d0\u05ea), cf. Eze 47:7, the Kal being preferred to the Hiph. \u05d4\u05e9\u05c1\u05d9\u05d1 (Jer 32:44; Jer 33:11) in favour of the alliteration with \u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea (from \u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05d4 to make any one a prisoner of war), - a transitive signification, which Hengstenberg (who interprets it: to turn back, to turn to the captivity, of God's merciful visitation), vainly hesitates to admit. But Isa 66:6, for instance, shows that the exiles also never looked for redemption anywhere but from Zion. Not as though they had thought, that Jahve still dwelt among the ruins of His habitation, which indeed on the contrary was become a ruin because He had forsaken it (as we read in Ezekiel); but the moment of His return to His people is also the moment when He entered again upon the occupation of His sanctuary, and His sanctuary, again appropriated by Jahve even before it was actually reared, is the spot whence issues the kindling of the divine judgment on the enemies of Israel, as well as the spot whence issues the brightness of the reverse side of this judgment, viz., the final deliverance, hence even during the Exile, Jerusalem is the point (the kibla) whither the eye of the praying captive was directed, Dan 6:11. There would therefore be nothing strange if a psalm-writer belonging to the Exile should express his longing for deliverance in these words: who gives = oh that one would give = oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! But since \u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05d1 \u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05d5\u05ea also signifies metaphorically to turn misfortune, as in Job 42:10; Eze 16:53 (perhaps also in Psa 85:2, cf. Psa 14:5), inasmuch as the idea of \u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea has been generalised exactly like the German \"Elend,\" exile (Old High German elilenti = sojourn in another country, banishment, homelessness), therefore the inscribed \u05dc\u05d3\u05d5\u05d3 cannot be called in question from this quarter. Even Hitzig renders: \"if Jahve would but turn the misfortune of His people,\" regarding this Psalm as composed by Jeremiah during the time the Scythians were in the land. If this rendering is possible, and that it is is undeniable, then we retain the inscription \u05dc\u05d3\u05d5\u05d3. And we do so the more readily, as Jeremiah's supposed authorship rests upon a non-recognition of his reproductive character, and the history of the prophet's times make no allusion to any incursion by the Scythians.\nThe condition of the true people of God in the time of Absolom was really a \u05e9\u05c1\u05d1\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea in more than a figurative sense. But we require no such comparison with contemporary history, since in these closing words we have only the gathering up into a brief form of the view which prevails in other parts of the Psalm, viz., that the \"righteous generation\" in the midst of the world, and even of the so-called Israel, finds itself in a state of oppression, imprisonment, and bondage. If God will turn this condition of His people, who are His people indeed and of a truth, then shall Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad. It is the grateful duty of the redeemed to rejoice. - And how could they do otherwise!","title":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch: Psalms: Psalms Chapter 14","type":"page"}