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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 14:1 - 14:1
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The perfect אָמַר, 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, פְּתִי, and the silly, כְּסִיל, for the lowest branches of this scale; the fool, אֱויל, and the madman, הֹולֵל, the uppermost. In the middle comes the notion of the simpleton or maniac, נָבָל - a word from the verbal stem נָבַל which, according as that which forms the centre of the group of consonants lies either in נב (Genesis S. 636), or in בל (comp. אבל, אול, אמל, קמל), signifies either to be extended, to relax, to become frail, to wither, or to be prominent, eminere, Arab. nabula; so that consequently נָבָל means the relaxed, powerless, expressed in New Testament language: πνεῦμα οὐκ ἔχοντα. Thus Isaiah (Isa 32:6) describes the נָבָל: “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 נָבָל is the synonym of לֵץ 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, אֵין אֱלֹהִים, 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 נָבָל. The heart according to Scripture language is not only the seat of volition, but also of thought. The נָבָל 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. עֲלִילָה, a poetical brevity of expression for עֲלִילֹותָם, 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 הִשְׁהִית is just the word that is generally used in this combination with עֲלִילָה Zep 3:7 or, what is the same thing, דֶּרֶךְ Gen 6:12; and הִתְעִיב (cf. 1Ki 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 דור צדיק, which experiences this corruption in the form of persecution, and the corrupt mass of mankind. He means what he says of mankind as κόσμος, 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.