Psalms 14:3

3 All of them have turned away. They have all become evil. No one does anything good, no one at all.

Psalms 14:3 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 14:3

They are all gone aside
As bankrupts, having run out their whole stock, and into debt, and have nothing to pay, nor make composition with, and are obliged to abscond, as Adam, ( Genesis 3:8 Genesis 3:24 ) . The words in ( Psalms 53:3 ) are, "everyone of them is gone back"; from God; have revolted from him, and turned their backs upon him, and have gone back from his commandment, despised his law, and cast away his word. The Apostle Paul interprets it, "they are all gone out of the way"; out of God's way, into their own way; out of the path of truth, righteousness, and holiness, into the way of sin, error, darkness, and death; and with this agrees the interpretation of Aben Ezra, who adds, "out of the right way"; and of Kimchi and Ben Melech, whose gloss is, "out of the good way"; which is God's way, or the way of his commandments;

they are [all] together become filthy,
or "stinking" F1, like putrid and corrupt flesh; see ( Psalms 38:5 ) ( Isaiah 1:6 ) ; and so "unprofitable", useless, and good for nothing, as the apostle renders it, ( Romans 3:12 ) . Mankind are universally filthy and unclean; they are all of them defiled with sin, both in soul and body, in all the faculties of their souls and members of their bodies; and they are originally and naturally so; nor can anything cleanse them from their pollution but the blood of Christ;

[there is] none that doeth good, no, not one:
this is repeated partly to asseverate more strongly the depravity of mankind, and partly to express the universality of it; that there is no exception to it in any that descend from Adam by ordinary generation. Here follows in the Septuagint version, according to the Vatican copy, all those passages quoted by the apostle, ( Romans 3:13-18 ) ; which have been generally supposed to have been taken from different parts of Scripture; so the Syriac scholiast says, in some ancient Greek copies are found eight more verses, and these are they, "Their throat"


FOOTNOTES:

F1 (wxlan) "faetnerunt, putruerunt", Pagninus; "aut putruerunt", Vatabulus; "putidi vel foetidi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis.

Psalms 14:3 In-Context

1 Foolish people say in their hearts, "There is no God." They do all kinds of horrible and evil things. No one does anything good.
2 The LORD looks down from heaven on all people. He wants to see if there are any who understand. He wants to see if there are any who trust in God.
3 All of them have turned away. They have all become evil. No one does anything good, no one at all.
4 Won't those who do evil ever learn? They eat up my people as if they were eating bread. They don't call out to the LORD for help.
5 Just look at them! They are filled with terror because God is among those who do right.
Holy Bible, New International Reader's Version® Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998 by Biblica.   All rights reserved worldwide.