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Sami Aronson
Mrs. Hope
Honors Writers Workshop
9 November 2015
Psalm 14
Judaism is represented in the Psalms. Specifically in Psalm 14, it discusses how people
have given up believing in God. This causes God to get mad at the people and consider them
evil. He believes that since they abandoned him and had lost faith that they have no good left in
them. This demonstrates Judaism because there is the belief of one God the Psalms are
considered to be the Hebrew Text. Hebrew is the language the Jews speak. Authors craft is
provided in Psalm 14 by the use of a simile to provide abstract imagery. Also, authors craft is
demonstrated through the use of repetition and parallelism.
For instance, the use of imagery and figurative language helps create abstract imagery. To
illustrate, They devour my people as though eating bread; they never call on the Lord(14:4).
This simile provides abstract imagery; it provides picture of people eating people casually and
fast as if they were bread. The people that dont follow God or believe in him anymore are
starting to sway Gods believers to not keep faith in him. This is how it relates to the simile, the
not believers are changes the believers opinions as fast as people eat bread.
In addition, repetition is demonstrated in the text as well. These techniques allow the
passage to smooth together easier and transition topics more fluently. For example, All have
turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one,(14:3). The
text repeats all have and not one which is similar to not even one. This emphasizes that

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there is not one good person left; that everyone has turned his or her back on God. They have all
betrayed him. The words all have have a significant severity placed on them.
Furthermore, the connotation of Psalm 14 is negative. God is shunning his people for
betraying him and not believing in him. The word evil doers gives off a connotation that the
people are extremely corrupt and are evil. Also, there is more than one point of view in the text.
It is written in first person since it uses personal pronouns, but it is told through an outside
narrator as well. The first person perspective is God talking about how his people had betrayed
him and how they are corrupt. The narrator refers to God as the Lord.
Overall, the theme of Psalm 14 is that those who dont place their faith in God are
corrupt. As stated in the text, The fool[a] says in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt,
their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good(14:1). This is saying that the people not
believing in God are fools. They are saying to themselves there is no God; they have no ne to
look up to and to pray to. They spin off the right track without gods guidance. Those who are
fools and dont believe in God are corrupt and their actions are horrifying. As stated in the text,
You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge,(14:6). The fools who
dont worship God mess things up for those who do praise God. When their plans are messed
they look to God for help.
To conclude, in Psalm 14 many aspects of authors craft are presented. Repetition is used
to place significance in the words all have. This is so because all of the people have lost hope
and stopped believing in God. Moreover, the connotation of the poem is negative and provides
abstract imagery by using figurative language. This produces an image of what the how fast the
people are losing faith in God. There is a theme as well, that those who dont believe in God are
fools. They are fooling themselves by not believing in God and are getting into trouble.

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