The Folly of the Godless and Salvation for Israel
For the music director, according to Mahalath.
A maskil of David.[a]
53 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt and they have done abominable iniquity.
There is none who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven upon the children of humankind
to see whether there is one who has insight,
one who seeks God.
3 All of them[b] have turned back.
They are altogether corrupt.
There is none who does good;
there is not even one.
4 Do not evildoers know,
they who eat my people as though they were eating bread?
They do not call on God.
5 There they are very fearful[c]
where no fear had been,
because God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you.
You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.
6 Oh, that from Zion[d] would come salvation for Israel!
When God returns the fortunes[e] of his people,
let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.
Footnotes
- Psalm 53:1 The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one
- Psalm 53:3 Literally “The whole of it,” i.e. all of humankind
- Psalm 53:5 Literally “they feared a fear”
- Psalm 53:6 Literally “Who will give that from Zion”
- Psalm 53:6 Or “captivity”