properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
altogether
יַחְדָּ֪וyach.Dav
H3162
properly · adverb
filthy
נֶ֫אֱלָ֥חוּne.'e.La.chu
H444
to muddle · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person common plural
doeth
עֹֽשֵׂה'o.seh-
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct
good
ט֑וֹבTov
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute
one
אֶחָֽד'e.Chad
H259
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like t…
Psalms 14:3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Jeremiah 8:5-6 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
3 John 1:11 Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
2 Samuel 20:2 So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jord…
Job 15:16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 53:1–end
This psalm was opened before, and therefore we shall here only observe, in short, some things concerning sin, in order to the increasing of our sorrow for it and hatred of it. 1. The fact of sin. Is that proved? Can the charge be made out? Yes, God is a witness to it, an unexceptionable witness: from the place of his holiness he looks on the children of men, and sees how little good there is among them, Psa 53:2. All the sinfulness of their hearts and lives in naked and open before him. 2. The fault of sin. Is there any harm in it? Yes, it is iniquity (Psa 53:1, Psa 53:4); it is an unrighteous thing; it is that which there is no good in (Psa 53:1, Psa 53:3); it is an evil thing; it is the wo…
Every one of them is gone back,.... From God, and the way of his commandments. In Psalm 14:3, it is, "they are all gone aside"; See Gill on Psalm 14:3;
they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good,
no, not one. What follows in this verse is the same as Psalm 14:3.
John Calvin on Psalms 53:1–end
Psalm 53:1-6
1. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God: they have become corrupt, they have done abominable works: there is none that doeth good. 2. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. 3. Every one of them has gone back; they have together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? eating my people as they eat bread: [286] they have not called upon God. 5. There were they in great fear where no fear was; for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them. 6. Who…
Instead of הכּל, the totality, we have כּלּו, which denotes each individual of the whole, to which the suffix, that has almost vanished (Psa 29:9) from the genius of the language, refers. And instead of סר, the more elegant סג, without any distinction in the meaning.
The Church Fathers
"The Lord from Heaven has looked forth upon the sons of men, that He might see if there is one understanding and seeking after God" [Psalm 53:3]. What is this? "Corrupted they are," all these that say, "There is no God"? And what? Did it escape God, that they had become such? Or indeed to us would their inward thought be opened, except by Him it were told? If then He understood, if then He knew, what is this which has been said, "that He might see"? For the words are of one inquiring, of one not knowing. "God from Heaven has looked forth," etc. And as though He had found what He sought by looking upon, and by looking down from Heaven, He gives sentence: "All men have gone aside, together useless they have become: there is not one that does good, not so much as one" [Psalm 53:4]. Two questions arise somewhat difficult: for if God looks out from Heaven, in order that He may see if there is one understanding or seeking after God; there steals upon an unwise man the thought, that God knows not all things. This is one question: what is the other? If there is not one that does good, is not so much as one; who is he that travails amid bad men? The former question then is solved as follows: ofttimes the Scripture speaks in such manner, that what by the gift of God a creature does, God is said to do....For hence has been said the following also, "For the Spirit searches all things, even the depth of God;" [1 Corinthians 2:10] not because He that knows all things searches, but because to you has been given the Spirit, which makes you also to search: and that which by His own gift you do, He is said to do; because without Him you would not do it: therefore God is said to do, when you do. And because this by the gift of God you doest, God from heaven is "looking forth upon the sons of men." The former question then, according to our measure, thus has been solved.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Mahalath Maschil — In the title of Ps. 53, denoting that this was a didactic psalm, to be sung to the accompaniment of the lute or guitar. Others regard this word “mahalath” as the name simply of an old air to which…
Music, Instrumental — Among instruments of music used by the Hebrews a principal place is given to stringed instruments. These were, (1.) The kinnor, the “harp.” (2.) The nebel, “a skin bottle,” rendered “psaltery.” (3.)…
Depravity Of Man · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Godlessness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Psalms 53:1-4
Ps 53 This psalm parallels Ps 14, differing only in verse 5.
53:1-3 Paul uses the Greek translation of this passage in his description of the depravity of all people (Rom 3:10-12).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 53:3
Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Every one of them is gone back. The whole mass of manhood, all of it, is gone back. In the fourteenth Psalm it was said to turn aside, which was bad enough, but here it is described as running in a diametrically opposite direction. The life of unregenerate manhood is in direct defiance of the law of God, not merely apart from it but opposed to it. They are altogether become filthy. The whole lump is soured with an evil leaven, fouled with an all pervading pollution, made rank with general putrefaction. Thus, in God's sight, our atheistic nature is not the pardoned thing that we thi…
