Psalms 53
Old Testament · Brenton Septuagint with Greek parallel
Psalms chapter 53 is given here in full, verse by verse, in Sir Lancelot Brenton's classic English translation of the Septuagint (LXX), with the Greek text of the Septuagint set beneath each verse. The text follows the Septuagint tradition received throughout the Orthodox Church.
21 patristic excerpts are attached to this chapter, from 2 Fathers — Saint Augustine of Hippo and Saint Hilary of Poitiers.
Psalms 53
1(54) For the end, among Hymns of instruction by David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, Behold, is not David hid with us? Save me, O God, by your name, and judge me by your might.Εἰς τὸ τέλος, ἐν ὕμνοις συνέσεως τῷ Δαυὶδ,
2O God, hear my prayer; listen to the words of my mouth.ἐν τῷ ἐλθεῖν τοὺς Ζειφαίους, καὶ εἰπεῖν τῷ Σαοὺλ, οὐκ ἰδοὺ Δαυὶδ κέκρυπται παρʼ ἡμῖν;
3For strangers have risen up against me, and mighty men have sought my life: they have not set God before them. Pause.Ὁ Θεὸς ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί σου σῶσόν με, καὶ ἐν τῇ δυνάμει σου κρῖνόν με.
4For behold! God assists me; and the Lord is the helper of my soul.Ὁ Θεὸς εἰσάκουσον τῆς προσευχῆς μου, ἐνώτισαι τὰ ῥήματα τοῦ στόματός μου.
5He shall return evil to my enemies; utterly destroy them in your truth.Ὅτι ἀλλότριοι ἐπανέστησαν ἐπʼ ἐμὲ, καὶ κραταιοὶ ἐζήτησαν τὴν ψυχήν μου, οὐ προέθεντο τὸν Θεὸν ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν· διάψαλμα.
6I will willingly sacrifice to you: I will give thanks to your name, O Lord; for it is good.Ἰδοὺ γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς βοηθεῖ μοι, καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἀντιλήπτωρ τῆς ψυχῆς μου.
7For you have delivered me out of all affliction, and my eye has seen my desire upon my enemies.Ἀποστρέψει τὰ κακὰ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς μου, ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ σου ἐξολόθρευσον αὐτούς.
8Ἑκουσίως θύσω σοι, ἐξομολογήσομαι τῷ ὀνόματί σου Κύριε, ὅτι ἀγαθόν.
9Ὅτι ἐκ πάσης θλίψεως ἐῤῥύσω με, καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐχθροῖς μου ἐπεῖδεν ὁ ὀφθαλμός μου.
The Fathers on Psalms 53
Saint Augustine of Hippo and Saint Hilary of Poitiers comment on this chapter. Each excerpt below is drawn from the full text held in the Fathers Library; follow the link on any entry to read the whole work.
On Psalms 53:1Saint Augustine of Hippo4. “O God, in Thy name make me safe, and in Thy virtue judge me” (ver. 1). Let the Church say this, hiding amid the Ziphites. Let the Christian body say this, keeping secret the good of its morals, expecting in secret the reward of its merits, let it say this: “In Thy virtue judge me.” Thou hast come, O Christ, humble Thou hast appeared, despised Thou hast been, scourged hast been, crucified hast been, slain hast…
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On Psalms 53:1Saint Hilary of PoitiersThe doctrines of the Gospel were well known to holy and blessed David in his capacity of Prophet, and although it was under the Law that he lived his bodily life, he yet filled, as far as in him lay, the requirements of the Apostolic behest and justified the witness borne to him by God in the words: I have found a man...
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On Psalms 53:1Saint Hilary of PoitiersNow to this Psalm is prefixed a title arising out of an historical event; but before the event is described we are instructed as to the scope, time and application of the incidents underlying it. First we have: For the end of the meaning of that David. Then there follows: When the Ziphims came and said to Saul:...
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On Psalms 53:1Saint Hilary of PoitiersThe meaning of the proper name, according to the exact sense of the Hebrew, affords us no small assistance in interpreting the passage. Ziphims mean what we call sprinklings of the face; these were called in Hebrew Ziphims. Now, by the Law, sprinkling was a cleansing from sins; it purified the people through faith by...
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On Psalms 53:1–2Saint Hilary of PoitiersSave me, O God, by Thy Name, and judge me by Thy power. Hear my prayer, O God; give ear unto the words of my mouth. The suffering of the Prophet David is, according to the account we have given of the title, a type of the Passion of our God and Lord Jesus Christ. This is why his prayer also corresponds in sense with...
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On Psalms 53:1–2Saint Hilary of PoitiersAnd because the whole of this passage is the utterance of One in the form of a servant—of a servant obedient unto the death of the Cross—which He took upon Him and for which He supplicates the saving help of the Name that belongs to God, and being sure of salvation by that Name, He immediately adds: and judge Me by...
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On Psalms 53:1–2Saint Hilary of PoitiersNext there follows: Hear my prayer, O God, give ear unto the words of my mouth. The obvious thing for the Prophet to say was, O God, hear me. But because he is speaking as the mouthpiece of Him, Who alone knew how to pray, we are given a constantly reiterated demand that prayer shall be heard. The words of St. Paul...
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On Psalms 53:2Saint Augustine of Hippo5. “O God, hearken to my prayer, in Thy ears receive the words of my mouth” (ver. 2).…To Thee may my prayer attain, driven forth and darted out from the desire of Thy eternal blessings: to Thy ears I send it forth, aid it that it may reach, lest it fall short in the middle of the way, and fainting as it were it fall down. But even if there result not to me now the good things which I ask, I am secured…
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On Psalms 53:2–4Saint Hilary of PoitiersHe has next added the reason why He prays for His words to be heard: For strangers are risen up against Me and violent men have sought after My soul; they have not set God before their eyes. The Only-begotten Son of God, the Word of God and God the Word—although assuredly He could Himself do all things that the Father...
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On Psalms 53:2–4Saint Hilary of PoitiersNow they were strangers that rose up against Him. For these are no sons of Abraham, nor sons of God, but a brood of vipers, servants of sin, a Canaanitish seed, their father an Amorite and their mother a daughter of Heth, inheriting diabolical desires from the devil their parent. Further it is the violent that seek...
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On Psalms 53:2–4Saint Hilary of PoitiersThe introduction of a pause marks a change of person. He no longer speaks but is addressed. For now the prophetic utterance assumes a general character. Thus immediately after the prayer addressed to God, he has added, in order that the confidence of the speaker might be understood to have obtained what He was asking...
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On Psalms 53:2–4Saint Hilary of PoitiersLet pure religion, therefore, have this confidence, and doubt not that amid the persecutions at the hand of man and the dangers to the soul, it still has God for its helper, knowing that, if at length it comes to a violent and unjust death, the soul on leaving the tabernacle of the body finds rest with God its...
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On Psalms 53:2–4Saint Hilary of PoitiersAfter this there is a return to the Person of God, to Whom the petition was at the first addressed: Destroy them by Thy truth. Truth confounds falsehood, and lying is destroyed by truth. We have shewn that the whole of the foregoing prayer is the utterance of that human nature in which the Son of God was born; so here...
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On Psalms 53:2–4Saint Hilary of PoitiersNow in view of our repeated, nay our unbroken assertion both that it was the Only-begotten Son of God Who was uplifted on the cross, and that He was condemned to death Who is eternal by virtue of the origin which is His by the nature which He derives from the eternal Father, it must be clearly understood that He was...
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On Psalms 53:2–4Saint Hilary of PoitiersFor next there follows: I will sacrifice unto Thee freely. The sacrifices of the Law, which consisted of whole burnt-offerings and oblations of goats and of bulls, did not involve an expression of free will, because the sentence of a curse was pronounced on all who broke the Law. Whoever failed to sacrifice laid...
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On Psalms 53:3Saint Augustine of Hippo6. “For aliens have risen up against me” (ver. 3). What “aliens”? Was not David himself a Jew of the tribe of Judah? But the very place Ziph belonged to the tribe of Judah; it was of the Jews. How then “aliens”? Not in city, not in tribe, not in kindred, but in flower.…But see the Ziphites, see them for a time flourishing. With reason “alien” sons. Thou amid the Ziphites hiding saidst what? “Blessed the people…
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On Psalms 53:4Saint Augustine of Hippo8. “For behold, God helpeth me” (ver. 4). Even themselves know not themselves, amid whom I am hiding. But if they too were to set God before their face, they would find in what manner God helpeth me. For all holy men are helped by God, but within, where no one seeth. For in like manner as the conscience of ungodly men is a great punishment, so a great joy is the very conscience of godly men. “For our glory this…
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On Psalms 53:5Saint Augustine of Hippo9. “Turn away evil things unto mine enemies” (ver. 5). So however green they are, so however they flourish, for the fire they are being reserved. “In Thy virtue destroy Thou them.” Because to wit they flourish now, because to wit they spring up like grass: do not thou be a man unwise and foolish, so that by giving thought to these things thou perish for ever and ever. For, “Turn Thou away evil things unto mine…
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On Psalms 53:5–7Saint Hilary of PoitiersThen He gives thanks to God the Father for the accomplishment of all these acts: I will give thanks unto Thy name, O Lord, for it is good, for Thou hast delivered Me out of all affliction. He has assigned to each clause its strict fulfilment. Thus at the beginning He had said: Save Me, O God, by Thy name; after the...
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On Psalms 53:6Saint Augustine of Hippo10. “Voluntarily I will sacrifice to Thee” (ver. 6). Who can even understand this good thing of the heart, at another’s speaking thereof, unless in himself he hath tasted it? What is, “Voluntarily I will sacrifice to Thee”?… For what sacrifice here shall I take, brethren? or what worthily shall I offer to the Lord for His mercy? Victims shall I seek from flock of sheep, ram shall I select, for any bull in the…
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On Psalms 53:7Open Psalms 53 in the interactive reader Switch translations, hear the chapter read aloud, tap any verse for its patristic commentary, and study the Greek word by word.Saint Augustine of Hippo11. “For out of all tribulation Thou hast delivered me” (ver. 7). For this cause I have perceived how good a thing is Thy name: for if this I were able before tribulations to acknowledge, perchance for me there had been no need of them. But tribulation hath been applied for admonition, admonition hath redounded to Thy praise. For I should not have understood where I was, except of my weakness I had been…
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