Psalms 94:4

WHAT THE WICKED WERE DOING

"They prate; they speak arrogantly:

All the workers of iniquity boast themselves.

They break in pieces thy people, O Jehovah,

And afflict thy heritage.

They slay the widow and the sojourner,

And murder the fatherless.

And they say, Jehovah will not see,

Neither will the God of Jacob consider."

During the long reign of Manasseh, the Scriptures tell us that, "Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another" (2 Kings 21:16).

"Throughout the Near East, the protection of widows, orphans and strangers was held to be the most sacred duty of leaders."[4]

"They prate" (Psalms 94:4). To prate is to speak idly, to chatter. The wicked were indulging in almost endless arrogant and idle speech against the righteous.

"Jehovah will not see ... the God of Jacob will not consider" (Psalms 94:7). Delitzsch thought that oppressors here were foreign powers, but as Maclaren pointed out, "There is nothing here to indicate that these oppressors were foreigners."[5] Furthermore, the appearance here of the expression "the God of Jacob" strongly indicates Israelites as the practical atheists in view here. As a matter of fact, Psalms 94:8, below, speaks of these evil-doers as being "among the people," that is, among God's people.

Adam Clarke remarked on Psalms 94:7 here that, "This is their impiety; this is their blasphemy; this is their practical atheism, and the cause of all their injustice, cruelty, tyranny and oppression."[6]