Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on Yahweh?
Parallel Translations
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Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on Yahweh?
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Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
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'Shall not all the workers of iniquity know it, who eat up My people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD?'
Cross-references (21)
Passages linked to Psalms 14:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 79:6 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name;
- Jeremiah 10:25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob. Yes, they have devoured him, consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
- Psalms 82:5 They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
- Isaiah 64:7 There is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities.
- Romans 1:28 Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
- Psalms 27:2 When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
- Amos 8:4 Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,
- Ephesians 4:17-18 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts.
- Job 27:10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times?
- Psalms 94:8-9 Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise? He who implanted the ear, won’t he hear? He who formed the eye, won’t he see?
- Isaiah 29:14 therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”
- Isaiah 45:20 “Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save.
- Hosea 7:7 They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one among them who calls to me.
- Micah 3:2-3 You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron.
- Galatians 5:15 But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.
- Isaiah 5:13 Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.
- Isaiah 27:11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
- Isaiah 44:19-20 No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?” He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”
- Romans 1:21-22 Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
- Job 21:15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
- 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (18 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain This question is added to give a more amplified…
This question is added to give a more amplified illustration of the preceding doctrine. The prophet had said that God observed from heaven the doings of men, and had found all of them gone out of the way; and now he introduces him exclaiming with astonishment, What madness is this, that they who ought to cherish my people, and assiduously perform to them every kind office, are oppressing and falling upon them like wild beasts, without any feeling of humanity? He attributes this manner of speaking to God, not because any thing can happen which is strange or unexpected to him, but in order the more forcibly to express his indignation. The Prophet Isaiah, in like manner, (Isaiah 59:16,) when treating of almost the same subject, says,
“And God saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor.” (Isaiah 59:16)
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God, it is true, does not actually experience in himself such affections, but he represents himself as invested with them, that we may entertain the greatest horror and dread on account of our sins, when he declares them to be of so monstrous a character, that he is as it were thrown into agitation and disorder by them. And were we not harder than the stones, our horror at the wickedness which prevails in the world would make the hair of our head to stand on end, “Il faut que l’horreur des meschancetez qui regnent au monde nous face dresser les cheveux en la teste.” — Fr.
“Desquels l’office est de paistre et governer le troupeau.” — Fr.
“And I said, Hear I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them; and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them,”
etc. If those who profess to know and to serve God were to exercise such cruelty towards the Babylonians or Egyptians, it would be a piece of injustice which could admit of no excuse; but when they glut themselves with the blood and flesh of the saints, as they devour bread, this is such monstrous iniquity, that it may well strike both angels and men with astonishment. Had such persons a particle of sound understanding remaining in them, it would restrain them from conduct so fearfully infatuated. They must, therefore, be completely blinded by the devil, and utterly bereft of reason and understanding, seeing they knowingly and willingly flay and devour the people of God with such inhumanity. This passage teaches us how displeasing to God, and how abominable is the cruelty which is exercised against the godly, by those who pretend to be their shepherds. In the end of the verse, where he says that they call not upon the Lord, he again points out the source and cause of this unbridled wickedness, namely, that such persons have no reverence for God. Religion is the best mistress for teaching us mutually to maintain equity and uprightness towards each other; and where a concern for religion is extinguished, then all regard for justice perishes along with it. With respect to the phrase, calling upon God, as it constitutes the principal exercise of godliness, it includes by synecdoche, (a figure of rhetoric, by which a part is put for the whole,) not only here, but in many other passages of Scripture, the whole of the service of God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 14:4 Have all the workers of iniquity no…
Psa 14:4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people [as] they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
Ver. 4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?] No, not so much as Pilate’s wife had in a dream; for else they would take heed of having anything to do with those just men. But they are workers of iniquity, habituated and hardened in cruelty, fleshed in blood; and having a hoof upon their hearts, so that they are masters of their consciences, and have taken a course with them. In this question here asked the psalmist doth not so much quaerere as queri, ask as chide and complain.
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Who eat up my people as they eat bread] That is, quotidie, daily, saith Austin; as duly as they eat bread; or, with the same eagerness and voracity. These man eaters, these Dαοβοροι, cruel cannibals, make no more conscience to undo a poor man than to eat a good meal when they are hungry. Like pickerels in a pond, or sharks in the sea, they devour the poorer, as those do the lesser fishes; and that many times with a plausible invisible consumption; as the usurer, who, like the ostrich, can digest any metal, but especially money.
They call not upon the Lord] viz. For a blessing upon that their bread, as some sense it; how should they, since God abhorreth them? Psa 10:3. But better take it for neglect of the duty of prayer; they rob God of his inward and outward worship, and so deal worse with him than idolaters do with their dunghill deities, whom they cease not to call upon. These will commit no impropriety in God’s service; and be sure that their prayer (like that of Haman’s, Est 7:7) shall never be turned into sin. If they pray in extremity (as then a Joab will lay hold on the horns of the altar), it is but as blind beggars are forced to ask, though they know not of whom.
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Have the workers of iniquity lost their wits? have…
Have the workers of iniquity lost their wits? have they neither religion nor common discretion? either of which would teach them not to make themselves so hateful to the all-seeing and almighty God, and to all men. The words may be rendered thus, Do not all the workers of iniquity know it? So it is only an ellipsis of the pronoun, which is frequent, as I have showed before. Are they not conscious to themselves of the truth of what I say? I dare appeal to their own consciences. But this I propound with submission.
Who eat up; or, they eat up, i.e. devour and destroy, as this word signifies, Deu 7:16; Pro 30:14; Jer 1:17; Nah 3:15.
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My people, i.e. the poor and godly Israelites, of whom he principally speaks; whom he calleth my people. Either,
1. God’s people, as they were in many respects; or rather,
2. David’s people; for David speaks both these words, and all the rest of this Psalm, in his own name and person. And David might well call them his people, either because they were his friends and favourers; or because he being anointed their king, they were consequently his people; or because he was now actually their king, and so they were actually his people; for some conceive that this Psalm was made in the time and upon the occasion of Absalom’s rebellion.
As they eat bread, i.e. with as little regret or remorse, and with as much greediness, and delight, and constancy too, as they use to eat their meat. The particle as is here understood, as it is Psa 125:2; Pro 26:9, and in many other places.
Call not upon the Lord; they are guilty not only of gross injustice, and oppression towards men, but also of horrid impiety and contempt of God, whose providence they deny, and whose worship they wholly neglect and despise.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain In these verses the psalmist endeavours,
In these verses the psalmist endeavours,
I. To convince sinners of the evil and danger of the way they are in, how secure soever they are in that way. Three things he shows them, which, it may be, they are not very willing to see - their wickedness, their folly, and their danger, while they are apt to believe themselves very wise, and good, and safe. See here,
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1. Their wickedness. This is described in four instances: - (1.) They are themselves workers of iniquity; they design it, they practise it, and take as much pleasure in it as ever any man did in his business. (2.) They eat up God's people with as much greediness as they eat bread, such an innate and inveterate enmity they have to them, and so heartily do they desire their ruin, because they really hate God, whose people they are. It is meat and drink to persecutors to be doing mischief; it is as agreeable to them as their necessary food. They eat up God's people easily, daily, securely, without either check of conscience when they do it or remorse of conscience when they have done it; as Joseph's brethren cast him into a pit and then sat down to eat bread, Gen 37:24, Gen 37:25. See Mic 3:2, Mic 3:3. (3.) They call not upon the Lord. Note, Those that care not for God's people, for God's poor, care not for God himself, but live in contempt of him. The reason why people run into all manner of wickedness, even the worst, is because they do not call upon God for his grace. What good can be expected from those that live without prayer? (4.) They shame the counsel of the poor, and upbraid them with making God their refuge, as David's enemies upbraided him, Psa 11:1. Note, Those are very wicked indeed, and have a great deal to answer for, who not only shake off religion, and live without it themselves, but say and do what they can to put others out of conceit with it that are well-inclined-with the duties of it, as if they were mean, melancholy, and unprofitable, and with the privileges of it, as if they were insufficient to make a man safe and happy. Those that banter religion and religious people will find, to their cost, it is ill jesting with edged-tools and dangerous persecuting those that make God their refuge. Be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. He shows them,
2. Their folly: They have no knowledge; this is obvious, for if they had any knowledge of God, if they did rightly understand themselves, and would but consider things as men, they would not be so abusive and barbarous as they are to the people of God.
3. Their danger (Psa 14:5): There were they in great fear. There, where they ate up God's people, their own consciences condemned what they did, and filled them with secret terrors; they sweetly sucked the blood of the saints, but in their bowels it is turned, and become the gall of asps. Many instances there have been of proud and cruel persecutors who have been made like Pashur, Magormissabibs - terrors to themselves and all about them. Those that will not fear God perhaps may be made to fear at the shaking of a leaf.
II. He endeavours to comfort the people of God, 1. With what they have. They have God's presence (Psa 14:5): He is in the generation of the righteous. They have his protection (Psa 14:6): The Lord is their refuge. This is as much their security as it is the terror of their enemies, who may jeer them for their confidence in God, but cannot jeer them out of it. In the judgment-day it will add to the terror and confusion of sinners to see God own the generation of the righteous, which they have hated and bantered. 2. With what they hope for; and that is the salvation of Israel, Psa 14:7. When David was driven out by Absalom and his rebellious accomplices, he comforted himself with an assurance that god would in due time turn again his captivity, to the joy of all his good subjects. But surely this pleasing prospect looks further. He had, in the beginning of the psalm, lamented the general corruption of mankind; and, in the melancholy view of that, wishes for the salvation which should be wrought out by the Redeemer, who was expected co come to Zion, to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, Rom 11:26. The world is bad; O that the Messiah would come and change its character! There is a universal corruption; O for the times of reformation! Those will be as joyful times as these are melancholy ones. Then shall God turn again the captivity of his people; for the Redeemer shall ascend on high, and lead captivity captive, and Jacob shall then rejoice. The triumphs of Zion's King will be the joys of Zion's children. The second coming of Christ, finally to extinguish the dominion of sin and Satan, will be the completing of this salvation, which is the hope, and will be the joy, of every Israelite indeed. With the assurance of that we should, in singing this, comfort ourselves and one another, with reference to the present sins of sinners and sufferings of saints.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?.... Of…
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?.... Of the being of God, of the nature of sin, and of the punishment due unto it? This question is put either by way of admiration, as Kimchi and Aben Ezra observe; the psalmist, or rather God speaking after the manner of men, wondering that there should be such ignorance and stupidity among men, as before expressed; or rather, as denying this to be the case, and affirming that they have knowledge, notwithstanding they think, and say, and do, as before related, as in Rom 9:21. Do not they know that there is a God? and that they are accountable to him for their actions? Verily they do: for this is said, not of sinners of the Gentiles; though even they, by the light of nature, know there is a God, and show the work of the law written in their hearts; and have a consciousness in them of good and evil; but of sinners in Zion, of the profligate part of mankind among the Jews, who had a divine revelation, by which they knew the one God of Israel; and a law, by which was the knowledge of sin, and whose sanctions were rewards and punishments. And it seems to design the chief among them, who had power over others, to eat them up and devour them; even their political and ecclesiastical governors see Mic 3:1, who, though they had no spiritual understanding, nor experimental knowledge of things, yet had a theoretical and speculative one; so that their sins were attended with this aggravation, that they were against light and knowledge, particularly what follows:
who eat up my people as they eat bread: not David's people, but the Lord's people: see Psa 14:2; whom he chose for his people, who were his covenant people, and who professed his name, and were called by it; these the workers of iniquity ate up, devoured, and consumed; see Jer 10:25; by reproaching and persecuting them, doing injury to their persons, property, and character: they devoured their persons, by using them cruelly and putting them to death; they devoured their substance, by spoiling them of it, and converting it to their own use, as the Pharisees are said to devour widows' houses and they destroyed their good names and characters with their devouring words: and this they did with as much ease, delight, and pleasure, and without any remorse of conscience, and as constantly, as a man eats his bread. Or the words may be rendered, "they eat up my people, they eat bread"; that is, though they act such a wicked and cruel part, yet they have bread to eat, and fulness of it; they are not in straits, nor afflicted and punished; and because they are not, they are hardened in their impiety and iniquity: or "they eat bread", after they have persecuted and devoured the Lord's people, with peace of mind, without remorse of conscience, as if they had done no iniquity, like the adulterous woman in Pro 30:20;
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and call not upon the Lord; or pray to him, or serve and worship him; for invocation includes the whole worship of God; and this they do not, though they know him, and are daily supplied by him, and eat his bread. Some read this clause with the former, "they eat bread, and call not on the Lord"; as if their sin was, that when they eat bread, they did not ask a blessing upon it, nor return thanks to God for it, which ought to be done; but the accent "athnach" under "bread", will not admit of this sense, though it seems to be countenanced by the Targum.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Bread - With as little remorse, and with as…
Bread - With as little remorse, and with as much greediness. Call not - They are guilty not only of gross injustice towards men, but also of horrid impiety and contempt of God.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. Have all the workers of iniquity no…
Verse 4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?] Is there not one of them who takes this dreadful subject into consideration? To their deeply fallen state they add cruelty; they oppress and destroy the poor, without either interest or reason.
Who eat up my people as they eat bread] Ye make them an easy and unresisting prey. They have no power to oppose you, and therefore you destroy them. That this is the meaning of the expression, is plain from the speech of Joshua and Caleb relative to the Canaanites. Nu 14:9: "Neither fear ye the people or the land; for they are bread for us."
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And call not upon the Lord.] They have no defence, for they invoke not the Lord. They are all either atheists or idolaters.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 14:4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?…
Psa 14:4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? — Have they lost their senses? Have they neither religion nor common discretion, either of which might teach them not to fight against Omnipotence, not to seek death, everlasting death and destruction, in the error of their life, not to rush voluntarily into the wrath of God, and provoke the vengeance of eternal fire. Who eat up my people — Who devour and destroy them, meaning God’s people, the poor and godly Israelites; as they eat bread — With as little regret or remorse, and with as much greediness, delight, and constancy also, as they use to eat their meat. They call not upon the Lord — They are guilty, not only of gross injustice toward men, but also of horrid impiety and contempt of God, denying his providence, and wholly neglecting, if not despising, his worship. Strange! that they should all be thus senseless, as not only to injure and oppress my poor innocent people, but to be cruel and void of all pity toward them, and to throw off likewise all religion!
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? -…
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? - literally, “Do they not know, all the workers of iniquity, eating my people, they eat bread; Jehovah they call not.” The several statements in this verse in confirmation of the fact of their depravity are:
(a) that they have no knowledge of God;
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(b) that they find pleasure in the errors and imperfections of the people of God - sustaining themselves in their own wickedness by the fact that the professed friends of God are inconsistent in their lives; and
(c) that they do not call on the name of the Lord, or that they offer no worship to him.
The whole verse might have been, and should have been put in the form of a question. The first statement implied in the question is, that they have “no knowledge.” This can be regarded as a proof of guilt only
(1) as they have opportunities of obtaining knowledge;
(2) as they neglect to improve those opportunities, and remain in voluntary ignorance; and
(3) as they do this from a design to practice wickedness.
See this argument stated at length by the apostle Paul in Rom 1:19-28. Compare the note at that passage. This proof of human depravity is everywhere manifested still in the world - in the fact that men have the opportunities of gaining the knowledge of God if they chose to do it; in the fact that they voluntarily neglect those opportunities; and in the fact that the reason of this is that they love iniquity.
Who eat up my people as they eat bread - They sustain themselves in their own course of life by the imperfections of the people of God. That is, they make use of their inconsistencies to confirm themselves in the belief that there is no God. They argue that a religion which produces no better fruits than what is seen in the lives of its professed friends can be of no value, or cannot be genuine; that if a professed belief in God produces no happier results than are found in their lives, it could be of no advantage to worship God; that they are themselves as good as those are who profess to be religious, and that, therefore, there can be no evidence from the lives of the professed friends of God that religion is either true or of any value. No inconsiderable part of the evidence in favor of religion, it is intended, shall be derived from the lives of its friends; and when that evidence is not furnished, of course no small part of the proof of its reality and value is lost. Hence, so much importance is attached everywhere in the Bible to the necessity of a consistent life on the part of the professed friends of religion. Compare Isa 43:10. The words “my people” here are properly to be regarded as the words of the psalmist, identifying himself with the people of God, and speaking of them thus as “his own people.” Thus one speaks of his own family or his own friends. Compare Rth 1:16. Or this may be spoken by David, considered as the head or ruler of the nation, and he may thus speak of the people of God as his people. The connection does not allow of the construction which would refer the words to God.
And call not upon the Lord - They do not worship Yahweh. They give this evidence of wickedness that they do not pray; that they do not invoke the blessing of their Maker; that they do not publicly acknowledge him as God. It is remarkable that this is placed as the last or the crowning thing in the evidence of their depravity; and if rightly considered, it is so. To one who should look at things as they are; to one who sees all the claims and obligations which rest upon mankind; to one who appreciates his own guilt, his dependance, and his exposure to death and woe; to one who understands aright why man was made - there can be no more striking proof of human depravity than in the fact that a man in no way acknowledges his Maker - that he renders him no homage - that he never supplicates his favor - never deprecates his wrath - that, amidst the trials, the temptations, the perils of life, he endeavors to make his way through the world “as if there were no God.” The highest crime that Gabriel could commit would be to renounce all allegiance to his Maker, and henceforward to live as if there were no God. All other iniquities that he might commit would spring out of that, and would be secondary to that. The great sin of man consists in renouncing God, and attempting to live as if there were no Supreme Being to whom he owes allegiance. All other sins spring out of that, and are subordinate to it.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Their conduct evinces indifference rather than ignorance of God;…
Their conduct evinces indifference rather than ignorance of God; for when He appears in judgment, they are stricken with great fear.
who eat up my people--to express their beastly fury (Pro 30:14; Hab 3:14). To "call on the Lord" is to worship Him.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 4. Who eat up my people—God is introduced as…
4. Who eat up my people—God is introduced as speaking. “Who devour the righteous with the same unconsciousness with which they would take their accustomed meal.”—Perowne. The spirit that “calls not upon the Lord,” that says, “There is no God,” has been in all ages a spirit of persecution of God’s people and of inhumanity to man. “My people” must be understood of the covenant people, specially of those who adhered to the spirit of the covenant.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. Jehovah Himself speaks. The first clause may be…
4. Jehovah Himself speaks. The first clause may be taken as in A.V., ‘Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?’ Are they so ignorant that they cannot distinguish between right and wrong? Cp. Psa_14:2 and Psa_82:5. But a much better connexion with Psa_14:5 is gained by rendering, Were not all the workers of iniquity made to know? (or, following the ancient versions in a change of the vocalisation, shall not … be made to know?) i.e. taught by sharp experience to know their error. Then Psa_14:5 follows as the answer to the question. ‘Yes, indeed! there &c.’ For this pregnant sense of know, cp. Hos_9:7; Jdg_8:16 (taught, lit. made to know).
who eat up &c.] Lit. eating my people they eat bread. The A.V. follows the ancient versions in understanding this to mean, ‘they devour my people as naturally as they take their daily food.’ But the words seem rather to mean, ‘they live by devouring my people.’ Cp. Mic_3:1-3; Isa_3:14 f. And this they do without regard to Jehovah.
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But who are meant by my people and the workers of iniquity? Possibly the godly few who alone deserve the name of Jehovah’s people (Mic_2:9; Mic_3:3; Mic_3:5; and often in the prophets), and the nobles who oppress them. But it is more natural to explain ‘my people’ of the nation of Israel; and in this case ‘the workers of iniquity’ must be foreign oppressors, or, if we assume a reference to past history as in Psa_14:1-3, the Egyptians. In favour of this view it should be noted that Israel is constantly called ‘my people’ in Exodus 3-10; and the last clause of the verse is illustrated by Exo_5:2. Cp. also Jer_2:3.
4–6. The corruption of men exemplified in their oppression of Jehovah’s people. Its condign punishment.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (4) Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?—i.e.,…
(4) Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?—i.e., are they so senseless as not to perceive the consequences of their wrong-doing? or if we point the verb as the LXX. and Vulg., “shall they not know?” i.e., they are sure to find out to what their wickedness is leading them.
Who eat up.—Literally, eating my people, they have eaten bread; on Jehovah they have not called, which is usually explained, as in Authorised Version, “to devour God’s people has been as usual and as regular as the daily meal.” Another rendering is “whilst eating my people they have eaten bread, regardless of Jehovah,” i.e., they have gone on in their security eating and drinking, with no thought of the vengeance preparing for them by the God of the oppressed race. Some, however, prefer to divide the two clauses, “Ah, they shall see—all the workers of iniquity who eat my people—they eat bread (i.e., live) regardless of Jehovah.” This makes a better parallelism. A comparison with Mic_3:3-4, suggests that this verse of the psalm was a proverbial saying. (For the image, comp. Jer_10:25; and Homer’s “people-devouring kings.”)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? The…
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? The exclamation is put in the mouth of God. Can it be possible that none of these evil-doers is aware of the results of evil-doing? Do they think to escape Divine retribution? The "wonder expresses the magnitude of their folly" (Hengstenberg). Who eat up my people as they eat bread. Reducing men to poverty, robbing them, and devouring their substance, is called, in Scripture, devouring the men themselves. (see Pro_30:14 Isa_3:14 Mic_3:3) Those who are plundered and despoiled are compared to "bread" in Num_14:2. The Homeric dhmoborov basileuv , adduced by Dr. Kay, is an instance of the same metaphor. And call not upon the Lord. This might have seemed scarcely to need mention, since "how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?". (Rom_10:14) But it connects them definitely with the atheists of ver. 1.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 4. Hatred of God and corruptness of life…
Ver. 4. Hatred of God and corruptness of life are the motive forces which produce persecution. Men who having no saving knowledge of divine things, enslave themselves to become workers of iniquity, have no heart to cry to the Lord for deliverance, but seek to amuse themselves with devouring the poor and despised people of God. It is hard bondage to be a
worker of iniquity; a worker at the galleys, or in the mines of Siberia, is not more truly degraded and wretched; the toil is hard and the reward dreadful: those who have no knowledge choose such slavery, but those who are taught of God cry to be rescued from it. The same ignorance which keeps men bondsmen to evil, makes them hate the freeborn sons of God; hence they seek to eat them up
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as they eat bread, daily, ravenously, as though it were an ordinary, usual, everyday matter to oppress the saints of God. As pikes in a pond, eat up little fish, as eagles prey on smaller birds, as wolves rend the sheep of the pasture, so sinners naturally and as a matter of course, persecute, malign, and mock the followers of the Lord Jesus. While thus preying, they forswear all praying, and in this act consistently, for how could they hope to be heard while their hands are full of blood?
Ver. 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Men's ignorance is the reason why they fear not what they should fear. Why is it that the ungodly fear not sin? Oh, it's because they know it not. "Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" Sure enough they have none, for they eat up my people as they eat bread; such morsels would scald their mouths, they would not dare to be such persecutors and destroyers of the people of God; they would be afraid to touch them if they did but know what they did. Richard Alleine.
Ver. 4. Who eat up my people as they eat bread. That is, quotidie, daily, saith Austin; as duly as they eat bread; or, with the same eagerness and voracity. These man eaters, these Laobomoi, cruel cannibals, make no more conscience to undo a poor man, than to eat a good meal when they are hungry. Like pickerels in a pond, or sharks in the sea, they devour the poorer, as those do the lesser fishes; and that many times with a plausible, invisible consumption; as the usurer, who like the ostrich, can digest any metal; but especially money. John Trapp.
Ver. 4. Who eat up my people as the eat bread. Oh, how few consult and believe the Scriptures setting forth the enmity of wicked men against God's people! The Scripture tells us "they eat up God's people as bread, "which implies a strange inclination in them to devour the saints, and that they take as great delight therein as a hungry man in eating, and that it is natural to them to molest them. The Scripture compares them, for their hateful qualities, to the lions, and bears, to foxes for subtlety, to wild bulls, to greedy swine, to scorpions, to briers and thorns (grievous and vexing things). The Scripture represents them as industrious and unwearied in their bloody enterprises, they cannot sleep without doing mischief. Herodias had rather have the blood of a saint than half a kingdom. Haman would pay a great fine to the king that the scattered Jews (who keep not the king's laws) may be cut off. Wicked men will run the hazard of damning their own souls, rather than not fling a dagger at the apple of God's eye. Though they know what one wordaha!! cost, yet they will break through all natural, civil, and moral obligations, to ruin God's people. The Holy Ghost calls them "implacable" men, fierce and headstrong; they are like the hot oven for fury, like the sea for boundless rage; yet, "who hath believed" this Scripture "report?" Did we believe what enemies all wicked men are unto all saints, we should not lean to our own prudence and discretion to secure us from any danger by these men; we would get an ark to secure us from the deluge of their wrath; if at any time we be cast among them and delivered, we would bless God with the three children that the hot fiery oven did not consume us; we would not wonder when we hear of any of their barbarous cruelty, but rather wonder at God's restraining them every day; we would be suspicious of receiving hurt when cast among light and frothy companions; we would shun their company as we do lions and scorpions; we would never commit any trust or secret into their hands; we would not be light hearted whilst in their society; we would not rely on their promises any more than we would on the promise of the devil, their father; we would long for heaven, to be delivered from "the tents of Kedar; "we would not count any of the saints secured from danger, though related to any great wicked man; we would not twist ourselves with them by matching ourselves or children to these sons and daughters of Belial; neither would we make choice of devils to be our servants. Lewis Stuckley.
Ver. 4. This is an evil world. It hates the people of God. "Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you." Joh 15:19. Haman's hatred was against the whole seed of the Jews. When you can find a serpent without a sting, or a leopard without spots, then may you expect to find a wicked world without hatred to the saints. Piety is the target which is aimed at. "They are mine adversaries because I follow the thing that good is." Ps 38:20. The world pretends to hate the godly for something else, but the ground of their quarrel is holiness. The world's hatred is implacable: anger may be reconciled, hatred cannot. You may as soon reconcile heaven and hell as the two seeds. If the world hated Christ, no wonder that it hates us. "The world hated me before it hated you." Joh 15:18. Why should any hate Christ? This blessed Dove had no gall, this rose of Sharon did send forth a most sweet perfume; but this shows the world's baseness, it is a Christ hating and a saint eating world. Thomas Watson.
Ver. 4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? If men rightly knew God, his law, the evil of sin, the torment of hell, and other great truths, would they sin as they do? Or if they know these and yet continue in their iniquities, how guilty and foolish they are! Answer the question both positively and negatively, and it supplies material for a searching discourse.
Ver. 4 (first clause). The crying sin of transgressing against light and knowledge.
Ver. 4 (last clause). Absence of prayer, a sure mark of a graceless state.
Psalms 14:5*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?
Psa_14:4-6
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge?
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Conscience
I. Conscience informed. It is quite true that the workers of iniquity seem like brute beasts, as if they had no common sense, no conscience; but they had these gifts, and it is this fact which renders their conscience so dark.
1. We sin against our understanding. Our reason protests against sill.
2. We sin against conscience. Our moral sense echoes the words and thunders of Sinai, and protests against transgression.
3. We sin against experience. Our history shows how all that is desirable and honourable lies in the path of obedience, and how paths of transgression are paths of misery and shame. Sin is not a mistake or a misfortune, but a crime.
II. Conscience asleep.
1. Asleep as to men (Psa_14:4).
2. Asleep as to God. Call not upon the Lord. Thus men stifle their moral sense, and live neither fearing God nor regarding man.
III. Conscience aroused (Psa_14:5). Men awake to find that God is in the generation of the righteous. All is true that the righteous held, and the angry God is ready to avenge Himself on the proud sinner. (W. L. Watkinson.)
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Psa_15:1-5
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Do they not know anything ... who do not…
Do they not know anything ... who do not call on Yahweh?
This rhetorical question is asked to add emphasis. It can be translated as a statement. AT: "They act as if they do not know anything ... who do not call on Yahweh. But they know what they are doing!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
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those who commit iniquity
The abstract nouns "iniquity" can be stated as "evil deeds." AT: "those who do evil deeds" (See: Abstract Nouns)
those who eat up my people
This refers to those who do evil things and destroy God's people as if they were eating food. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
iniquity
people of God
bread
call
Yahweh
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 14:4 The evil live at the expense of others…
14:4 The evil live at the expense of others (27:2; 44:11; 53:4; see Isa 5:8) and have no reverence or knowledge of God (Ps 79:6).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.