Psalm 14 is the 14th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." In the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, it is psalm 13 in a slightly different numbering, "Dixit insipiens in corde suo".[1] Its authorship is traditionally assigned to King David.[2] With minor differences, it is nearly identical in content with Psalm 53.[3]Hermann Gunkel dates the psalm to the exile period.[4]
The following table shows the Hebrew text[5][6] of the Psalm with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the JPS 1917 translation (now in the public domain).
For the Leader. [A Psalm] of David. The fool hath said in his heart: 'There is no God'; they have dealt corruptly, they have done abominably; there is none that doeth good.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.
There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.
Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.
Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
In 1763, in Britain, a version of the King James Bible was published that had a very noticeable misprint in the first verse of Psalm 14 which completely reversed the meaning of that verse. The misprint changed the start of the verse to "The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God" instead of "no God". The printers involved were fined £3,000 (a large sum of money at the time) for the mistake and all copies of the misprinted bible were ordered destroyed.[7]
There is an additional passage after verse 3 which is present in the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and one Hebrew manuscript,[8] but missing from the Masoretic text and from Psalm 53. The passage (and verses 2 and 3) is quoted in full in Romans 3:13-18, taken from the Septuagint.[9] The Hebrew of this passage, including verse 3, reads:[10]
They are all gone aside, they are together become filthy.
There is none that doeth good, not even one.
An open grave is their throat, their tongue speaketh smoothly.
Asp venom is under their tongue, whose mouth is full of cursing and deceit.
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Misfortune and evil injury are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
David is telling the audience that it is foolish to not believe in God. The opening statement says, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." In the Bible when something or someone is referenced to being "foolish", this means that this person is "someone who disregards God's word".[citation needed] He refers to them as corrupt and does work that is hateful when it says "abominable". David is making it clear that without God, man cannot do any good because we have a sinful nature. One who does not believe in God, is susceptible to hatefulness and corrupt behavior.
According to some Christian exegesis, David begins to reference the return of Christ to retrieve his people. When he discusses the salvation of Israel and bringing them out of captivity, he is saying that the Lord will bring the ones who call on his name and are his believers to safety, away from the dominion of sin on the earth.[11][12]
