1To the lead player, on the mahalath, a David maskil.
2The scoundrel has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They corrupt and do loathsome misdeeds.
There is none who does good.
3The LORD from the heavens looked down
on the sons of humankind
to see, is there someone discerning,
someone seeking out God.
4All are tainted,
altogether befouled.
There is none who does good.
There is not even one.
5Do they not know,
Devourers of my people devoured them like bread.
They did not call on God.
6There did they sorely fear.
for God scattered the bones of your besieger.
You put them to shame, for God spurned them.
7O, may from Zion come Israel’s rescue
when God restores His people’s fortunes.
May Jacob exult.
May Israel rejoice.
PSALM 53 NOTES
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This psalm is a duplication of Psalm 14. In keeping with the general practice of the editor in the second book of Psalms, God, ʾelohim, is consistently substituted for YHWH, the LORD, in Psalm 14. The other changes are limited with the exception of verse 6. The divergences from Psalm 14 are noted below. For other remarks on the poem, the reader is referred to the commentary on Psalm 14.
1. To the lead player, on the mahalath, a David maskil. This is a different superscription. Psalm 14 has simply, “For the lead player, for David.” The mahalath is presumably a musical instrument, but its nature is unknown.
2. and do loathsome misdeeds. Psalm 14 has ʿalilah, “acts,” as against ʿawel, “misdeed[s],” here. The “and” before the verb is absent in Psalm 14.
4. All are tainted. The Hebrew kulo sag differs from Psalm 14, hakol sar, “all turn astray.”
5. the wrongdoers. Psalm 14 reads “all wrongdoers.”
6. There was no fear. The least strained way to construe this clause, which does not appear in Psalm 14, is as implying “but”: they—presumably, the Israelites—were afraid, but it turned out that there was no reason to fear.
for God scattered the bones of your besieger. Psalm 14 here reads, “for God is with the righteous band.” The word for “besieger” is literally “your camper” (the one encamped against you?). The defeat of besiegers has led some interpreters to see in this line a reference to the frustrated siege on Jerusalem of Sennacherib, but that is pure conjecture.
You put them to shame, for God spurned them. Psalm 14 reads, “In your plot against the poor you are shamed, / for the LORD is his shelter.” In both psalms, the grammar of the verb of shame is problematic.