Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
Parallel translations
- WEB Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?
- BSB Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon God.
- NKJV Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call upon God?
- NASB ¶Have the workers of injustice no knowledge, Who eat up My people like they ate bread, And have not called upon God?
- NLT Will those who do evil never learn? They eat up my people like bread and wouldn’t think of praying to God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The wicked devour God's people thoughtlessly and refuse to call on him. It rebukes the senseless cruelty of those who ignore God.
Overview
David marvels at the ignorance of evildoers who consume the godly as casually as eating bread and never seek the Lord. Their prayerlessness reveals their refusal to acknowledge God. The verse comforts the oppressed that God sees their mistreatment and will hold the wicked accountable.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Jer 4:22For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
- Jer 10:25Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.
- Ps 27:2When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
- Ps 94:8Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
- Isa 27:11When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
- Matt 23:17–39Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
- Rev 17:16And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 53:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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