Bible Strands
Psalms 14:4
Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the assembly during a period of universal moral decay, declaring that every worker of iniquity operates without reverence for God.
The words — The Hebrew phrase פֹּ֪עֲלֵ֫י אָ֥וֶן (po.'a.Lei 'A.ven) literally translates to "workers of wickedness," while אֹכְלֵ֣י עַ֭מִּ/י ('o.khe.Lei 'A.m/i) describes them as "devouring my people."
The thread — This pattern of refusing to acknowledge or call upon the LORD appears in Psalms 79:6 and Jeremiah 10:25, where identical language precedes a call for divine judgment on those who reject God.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that persistent wickedness originates from a refusal to seek God, requiring the reader to evaluate whether their own conduct acknowledges divine authority.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.
Cross-references
- Psalms 79:6 Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, on the kingdoms that refuse to call on Your name,
- Jeremiah 10:25 Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, and on the families that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have consumed him and finished him off; they have devastated his homeland.
- Psalms 82:5 They do not know or understand; they wander in the darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
- Isaiah 64:7 No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
- Romans 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
- Psalms 27:2 When the wicked came upon me to devour my flesh, my enemies and foes stumbled and fell.
- Amos 8:4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
- Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
- Job 27:10 Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?
- Psalms 94:8 Take notice, O senseless among the people! O fools, when will you be wise?