From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Psalm 14

Biblical psalm

Field	Value
name	Psalm 14
subtitle	"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."
image	Enchiridion geistlicher Gesänge 27.jpg
caption	Martin Luther's singable version of the 14th Psalm, "Es spricht der Unweisen Mund wohl", in the 1524 Erfurt Enchiridion
other_name	{{plainlist
language	Hebrew (original)

Psalm 13
"Dixit insipiens in corde suo" Psalm 14 is the 14th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." In the slightly different numbering of the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this psalm is Psalm 13. In Latin, it is also known by its incipit as "Dixit insipiens in corde suo". Its authorship is traditionally assigned to King David. With minor differences, it is nearly identical in content with Psalm 53. Hermann Gunkel dates the psalm to the exile period.

The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies. It has been paraphrased in hymns such as Luther's "Es spricht der Unweisen Mund wohl".

Meaning

David is telling the audience that it is foolish to not believe in God. The opening statement says, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." In the Bible when something or someone is referenced to being "foolish", this means that this person is "someone who disregards God's word". He refers to them as corrupt and does work that is hateful when it says "abominable". David is making it clear that without God, man cannot do any good because we have a sinful nature. One who does not believe in God, is susceptible to hatefulness and corrupt behavior.

According to some Christian exegesis, David begins to reference the return of Christ to retrieve his people. When he discusses the salvation of Israel and bringing them out of captivity, he is saying that the Lord will bring the ones who call on his name and are his believers to safety, away from the dominion of sin on the earth.

Text

The following table shows the Hebrew text of the Psalm with vowels, alongside the Koine Greek text in the Septuagint and the English translation from the King James Version. Note that the meaning can slightly differ between these versions, as the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text come from different textual traditions.A 1917 translation directly from Hebrew to English by the Jewish Publication Society can be found here or here, and an 1844 translation directly from the Septuagint by L. C. L. Brenton can be found here. Both translations are in the public domain. In the Septuagint, this psalm is numbered Psalm 13.

#	English	Greek
1	(To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.	Εἰς τὸ τέλος· ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυΐδ. - ΕΙΠΕΝ ἄφρων ἐν καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ· οὐκ ἔστι Θεός. διεφθάρησαν καὶ ἐβδελύχθησαν ἐν ἐπιτηδεύμασιν, οὐκ ἔστι ποιῶν χρηστότητα, οὐκ ἔστιν ἕως ἑνός.
2	The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.	Κύριος ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ διέκυψεν ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων τοῦ ἰδεῖν εἰ ἔστι συνιὼν ἢ ἐκζητῶν τὸν Θεόν.
3	They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.	πάντες ἐξέκλιναν, ἅμα ἠχρειώθησαν, οὐκ ἔστι ποιῶν χρηστότητα, οὐκ ἔστιν ἕως ἑνός.
4	Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.	οὐχὶ γνώσονται πάντες οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι τὴν ἀνομίαν; οἱ ἐσθίοντες τὸν λαόν μου βρώσει ἄρτου τὸν Κύριον οὐκ ἐπεκαλέσαντο.
5	There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.	ἐκεῖ ἐδειλίασαν φόβῳ, οὗ οὐκ ἦν φόβος, ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς ἐν γενεᾷ δικαίᾳ.
6	Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.	βουλὴν πτωχοῦ κατῃσχύνατε, ὁ δὲ Κύριος ἐλπὶς αὐτοῦ ἐστι.
7	Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.	τίς δώσει ἐκ Σιὼν τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ ᾿Ισραήλ; ἐν τῷ ἐπιστρέψαι Κύριον τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ ἀγαλλιάσεται ᾿Ιακὼβ καὶ εὐφρανθήσεται ᾿Ισραήλ.

The Fools Bible

In 1763, in Britain, a version of the King James Bible was published that had a very noticeable misprint in the first verse of Psalm 14 which completely reversed the meaning of that verse. The misprint changed the start of the verse to "The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God" instead of "no God". The printers involved were fined £3,000 (a large sum of money at the time) for the mistake and all copies of the misprinted bible were ordered destroyed.

Additional passage

There is an additional passage after verse 3 which is present in the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and one Hebrew manuscript, but missing from the Masoretic Text and from Psalm 53. The passage (and verses 2 and 3) is quoted in full in Romans 3:13-18, taken from the Septuagint. The Hebrew and Greek of this passage, including verse 3, reads:

Hebrew	English	Greek

Uses

New Testament

Some verses of Psalm 14 are referenced in the New Testament. Verses 1c, 2b, 3 are quoted in Romans

Book of Common Prayer

In the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer, Psalm 14 is appointed to be read on the evening of the second day of the month.

Musical setting

Martin Luther paraphrased Psalm 14 in a hymn in German "Es spricht der Unweisen Mund wohl" in 1524, one of the eight songs in the first Lutheran hymnal, Achtliederbuch. Heinrich Schütz wrote a setting of this text, SWV 110, as part of the Becker Psalter.

Notes

References

"Parallel Latin/English Psalter / Psalmus 13".
[[Julian Morgenstern. Morgenstern, Julian]]. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3261644 Psalm 11]." ''Journal of Biblical Literature'', vol. 69, no. 3, 1950, pp. 221–231.
[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1356230 Bennett, Robert A., “Wisdom Motifs in Psalm 14 = 53: Nābāl and 'Ēṣāh”, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 220, 1975, pp. 15–21.]
Gunkel, Hermann. (1986). "Die Psalmen". Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
"Psalms 14 Commentary - Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete)".
"Topical Bible: Abominable".
"Psalms – Chapter 14". Mechon Mamre.
"Psalms 14 - JPS 1917". [[Sefaria.
"Psalm 13 - Septuagint and Brenton's Septuagint Translation". Ellopos.
(2009). "A Steroid Hit the Earth". Portico.
Briggs, Charles. (1906). "A critical and exegetical commentary on the book of Psalms". C. Scribner’s Sons.
{{bibleverse. Romans. 3:11-18. KJV
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 1983
Kirkpatrick, A. F.. (1901). "The Book of Psalms: with Introduction and Notes". At the University Press.
Church of England, [https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/The%20Book%20of%20Common%20Prayer%201662.pdf Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter] as printed by [[John Baskerville]] in 1762, pp. 196ff

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

psalms texts-assigned-to-david criticism-of-atheism

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Psalm 14 — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report