Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 14:4

"Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people [as] they eat bread, And call not upon Jehovah?" — Psalms 14:4 (ASV)

Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? — that is, are they so senseless that they do not perceive the consequences of their wrongdoing? Or if we interpret the verb as the Septuagint and Vulgate do, “shall they not know?” that is, they are sure to find out to what their wickedness is leading them.

Who eat up. — Literally, eating my people, they have eaten bread; on Jehovah they have not called, which is usually explained, as in the Authorized Version, “to devour God’s people has been as usual and as regular as the daily meal.” Another rendering is, “while eating my people they have eaten bread, regardless of Jehovah,” that is, they have gone on in their security eating and drinking, with no thought of the vengeance preparing for them by the God of the oppressed race. Some, however, prefer to divide the two clauses: “Ah, they shall see—all the workers of iniquity who eat my people—they eat bread (that is, live) regardless of Jehovah.” This makes a better parallelism. A comparison with Micah 3:3–4 suggests that this verse of the psalm was a proverbial saying. (For the image, compare Jeremiah 10:25; and Homer’s “people-devouring kings.”)