Psalms Chapter 14 verse 4 Holy Bible
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people `as' they eat bread, And call not upon Jehovah?
read chapter 14 in ASV
Have all the workers of evil no knowledge? they take my people for food as they would take bread; they make no prayer to the Lord.
read chapter 14 in BBE
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, eating up my people [as] they eat bread? They call not upon Jehovah.
read chapter 14 in DARBY
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
read chapter 14 in KJV
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
read chapter 14 in WBT
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And don't call on Yahweh?
read chapter 14 in WEB
Have all working iniquity not known? Those consuming my people have eaten bread, Jehovah they have not called.
read chapter 14 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 4. - Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? The exclamation is put in the mouth of God. Can it be possible that none of these evil-doers is aware of the results of evil-doing? Do they think to escape Divine retribution? The "wonder expresses the magnitude of their folly" (Hengstenberg). Who eat up my people as they eat bread. Reducing men to poverty, robbing them, and devouring their substance, is called, in Scripture, devouring the men themselves (see Proverbs 30:14; Isaiah 3:14; Micah 3:3). Those who are plundered and despoiled are compared to "bread" in Numbers 14:2. The Homeric δημοβόρος βασιλεὺς, adduced by Dr. Kay, is an instance of the same metaphor. And call not upon the Lord. This might have seemed scarcely to need mention, since "how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" (Romans 10:14). But it connects them definitely with the atheists of ver. 1.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(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.")
