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2 Jahve looketh down from heaven upon the children of men To see if there be any that hare understanding, If any that seek after God. 3 They are all fallen away, altogether they are corrupt, There is none that doeth good, Not even one. 4 "Are they so utterly devoid of understanding, all the workers of iniquity, Who eating up my people, eat up bread, They call not on Jahve?" 5 Then were they in great fear, For God is in the righteous generation. 6 Would ye bring to shame the counsel of the afflicted, For Jahve is indeed his refuge 1 7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of ZionI When Jahve turneth the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, Israel shall be glad.
Just as the general lamentation of Psa 12:1-8 assumes a personal character in Psa 13:1-6, so in Psa 14:1-7 it becomes again general; and the personal desire יגל לבּי, Psa 13:5, so full of hope, corresponds to יגל יעקב, which is extended to the whole people of God in Psa 14:7. Moreover, Psa 14:1-7, as being a gloomy picture of the times in which the dawn of the divine day is discernible in the background, is more closely allied to Psa 12:1-8 than to Psa 13:1-6, although this latter is not inserted between them without some recognised reason. In the reprobation of the moral and religious character of the men of the age, which Psa 14:1-7 has in common with Psa 12:1-8, we at once have a confirmation of the לדוד. But Psa 14:7 does not necessitate our coming down to the time of the Exile.
In Psa 53:1-6 we find this Psalm which is Jehovic, occurring again as Elohimic. The position of Psa 14:1-7 in the primary collection favours the presumption, that it is the earlier and more original composition. And since this presumption will bear the test of a critical comparison