Psalms 14:4

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?

Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? - expressing wonder at the monstrous folly of the evil-doers.

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, . 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 , 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.

Psalms 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. 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? Psalms 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, Esther 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.

(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 Micah 3:3-4, suggests that this verse of the psalm was a proverbial saying. (For the image, comp. Jeremiah 10:25; and Homer’s “people-devouring kings.”)

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. Numbers 14:9: "Neither fear ye the people or the land; for they are bread for us." And call not upon the Lord.] They have no defence, for they invoke not the Lord. They are all either atheists or idolaters.

4–6. The corruption of men exemplified in their oppression of Jehovah’s people. Its condign punishment.

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

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.