Psa 14:5-6 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 5. There were they in great fear ] This is a manifest allusion to the history of the Canaanitish nations ; they were struck with terror at the sight of the Israelites, and by this allusion the psalmist shows that a destruction similar to that which fell upon them, should fall on the Babylonians. Several of the versions add, from , "Where no fear was." They were struck with terror, where no real cause of terror existed. Their fears had magnified their danger. For God is in the generation ] They feared the Israelites, because they knew that the Almighty God was among them.

‏ Psalms 14:5-6

Verse 5. There were they in great fear] This is a manifest allusion to the history of the Canaanitish nations; they were struck with terror at the sight of the Israelites, and by this allusion the psalmist shows that a destruction similar to that which fell upon them, should fall on the Babylonians. Several of the versions add, from Ps 53:5, "Where no fear was." They were struck with terror, where no real cause of terror existed. Their fears had magnified their danger.

For God is in the generation] They feared the Israelites, because they knew that the Almighty God was among them.

Verse 6. Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor] Instead of tabishu, "Ye have shamed," Bishop Horsley proposes to read tabishem, and translates the clause thus: "The counsel of the helpless man shall put them to shame." But this is not authorized by MS. or version. There is no need for any change: the psalmist refers to the confidence which the afflicted people professed to have in God for their deliverance, which confidence the Babylonians turned into ridicule. The poor people took counsel together to expect help from God, and to wait patiently for it; and this counsel ye derided, because ye did not know-did not consider, that God was in the congregation of the righteous.