(director: on machalat, instructive, of David)

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See Psalm 14 for an introduction to this psalm, which is nearly identical until verse 5.

53:1 on machalat  The root word might indicate sickness or appeasement, two very different readings.

53:1 made the vile worse  One difference from Psalm 14 is the inclusion of `avel (wrong) instead of `alilu (deeds). To “make the vile wrong” sounds like a double negative, however, when really the meaning is additive.

53:2 God from the skies  Unlike Psalm 14, Psalm 53 omits the Lord’s personal name, YHWH. Instead the name God (Elohim) is used seven times in a pattern: once (1), twice (2), once (4), twice (5), once (6). The first and fourth namings are linked to a negative (“no God”; “God | they did not call”).

3 each one of them slid back  In Hebrew, culo sag (“each one slid back”) instead of Psalm 14’s hacol sar (they all turned).

5 there had been no fear… Here Psalm 53 differs from Psalm 14 considerably.. This phrase is added, and then things swerve. We have not “for God | is with the cohort of the just” (14:5) plus “the council of the weak | you (plural) mock / for the Lord |is his nest” (14:6), but for God splayed the bones | of your besiegers / you (singular) mocked | when God despised them” (53:5).  As the note to Psalm 14 mentions, it is unclear which version came first, if a chronological approach is indeed applicable.