Psalm 53:3

Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) There are two unimportant variations from Psalms 14 here: “every one,” instead of “the whole,” and “gone back” (sag) for “gone aside” (sar).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

53:1-6 The corruption of man by nature. - This psalm is almost the same as the 14th. The scope of it is to convince us of our sins. God, by the psalmist, here shows us how bad we are, and proves this by his own certain knowledge. He speaks terror to persecutors, the worst of sinners. He speaks encouragement to God's persecuted people. How comes it that men are so bad? Because there is no fear of God before their eyes. Men's bad practices flow from their bad principles; if they profess to know God, yet in works, because in thoughts, they deny him. See the folly of sin; he is a fool, in the account of God, whose judgment we are sure is right, that harbours such corrupt thoughts. And see the fruit of sin; to what it brings men, when their hearts are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. See also the faith of the saints, and their hope and power as to the cure of this great evil. There will come a Saviour, a great salvation, a salvation from sin. God will save his church from its enemies. He will save all believers from their own sins, that they may not be led captive by them, which will be everlasting joy to them. From this work the Redeemer had his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins, Mt 1:21.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Every one of them is gone back - See the notes at Psalm 14:3. The only variation here in the two psalms is in the substitution of the word - סג sâg, for סור sûr - words almost identical in form and in sense. The only difference in meaning is, that the former word - the word used here - means "to draw back," or "to go back;" the other, the word used in Psalm 14:1-7, means "to go off, to turn aside." Each of them indicates a departure from God; a departure equally fatal and equally guilty, whether people turn "back" from following him, or turn "aside" to something else. Both of these forms of apostasy occur with lamentable frequency.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 53

Ps 53:1-6. Upon Mahalath—(See on [595]Ps 88:1, title). Why this repetition of the fourteenth Psalm is given we do not know.

1-4. with few verbal changes, correspond with Ps 14:1-4.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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.

Geneva Study Bible

Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. The result of His investigation. Every one of them had gone back (Psalm 44:18) from following God (in Psalm 14:3 turned aside from the path of right): together had they become tainted, a word which in Arabic means to go bad or turn sour, but in Heb. is used only in a moral sense, here and in Job 15:16. On the interpolation in the P.B.V. of Psalms 14 after Psalm 53:3 see note there.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - For "they are all gone aside" (הכּל סר) in Psalm 14, the present psalm has, "every one of them is gone back" (לּכּו סג) - a difference which may be due to corruption, and which is, at any rate, of no importance. Psalm 53:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Instead of הכּל, the totality, we have כּלּו, which denotes each individual of the whole, to which the suffix, that has almost vanished (Psalm 29:9) from the genius of the language, refers. And instead of סר, the more elegant סג, without any distinction in the meaning.