Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 53:5

"There were they in great fear, where no fear was; For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: Thou hast put them to shame, because of God hath rejected them." — Psalms 53:5 (ASV)

Where no fear was. This—the most interesting variation from Psalm 14—plainly appears to have been inserted to bring the Psalm into harmony with some circumstance belonging to the time for which it was adapted, but to which we have no clue.

Regarding the choice among the various explanations given for it, we must remark that the one which takes “fear” in a good sense (“Then were they in great fright where there was no fear of God”) is excluded by the fact that the same word is used in both clauses. And, as pâchad is elsewhere used for a “cause of terror,” we may render it, There were they in great fear, where there was no cause for fear.

Apparently, from the immediate context, this statement refers not to the enemies of Israel, but to Israel itself. It was so constantly applicable to a people supposed to be living under the immediate protection of God, and yet liable to sudden panics, that we do not need to try to recover the precise event to which it referred.

Of him that encampeth against thee. Literally, of your besiegers. The bones of the beleaguering host lie bleaching on the sand.

However, the text seems to have suffered. The Septuagint and Vulgate have “the bones of them that please men,” and a comparison with Psalm 14:5-6 shows such a similarity of letters, with a difference of meaning, that both texts look like different attempts to restore some faded manuscript. Many attempts have been made to restore the original, but none has been eminently satisfactory.