They are all gone aside, they are [all] together become filthy: [there is] none that doeth good, no, not one.
Ver. 3. They are all gone aside, &c.] This is God's own report of the matter, fully answering to that before given in by David, Psalms 14:1. Good men have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16, and do fully concur with him in judgment and affection. David was a man after God's own heart; and the heart of Paul is the heart of Christ, saith Chrysostom. But why, then, doth not David except himself out of this universitas declinantium, community of stragglers that are gone aside? and why doth St Paul argue from this text that all, both Jews and Gentiles, are stark naught? Romans 3:10,12. I answer, because by nature there is never a better of us; but κακοι μεν θριπες κακοι ηδε και ιπες, as the Greek proverb hath it. "All we like sheep have gone astray," saith the whole Church, Isaiah 53:6 Homo est inversus decalogus, we naturally all stand across to all goodness. The word here rendered gone aside signifieth to give back sturdily, as a stubborn heifer, that refuseth to receive the yoke.
They are altogether become filthy] Heb. stinking, yielding a worse smell than carrion doth, or than the filthy fox doth, of whom Oppianus reporteth (and experience showeth it to be true), that when he is beset on all sides by the dogs that hunt him, he bewrayeth his tail with urine and dung, of a most loathsome smell, and besmearing therewith the dogs' noses, driveth them away therewith many times (Bodin. Theat. Nat. 352). But all this is nothing to the filth and stench of sin, which made their very incense an abomination, Isaiah 1:13; and rendereth them most like the devil, that foul spirit, that ever goeth out with a stench, as they say of him. The Hebrews have the same word for sin and a dead carcase; and again the same word for sin and stench. פנר מחר God's vineyard brought forth stinking grapes, באשׁים Isaiah 5:5, and the wicked utter rotten language, Dογος σαπρος, Eph 5:4 Hence Longinquus est Iehovah ab impiis, The Lord stands aloof off from the wicked, Pro 15:29 Psalms 5:5, that is, from all for whom Christ hath not given himself "an offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour," Ephesians 5:2. The apostle rendereth it, they are useless, ηχρειωθησον, or, as he elsewhere phraseth it, "to every good work reprobate," Titus 1:16 .
There is none that doeth good] Spiritually good, and unto divine acceptation. There is many times malum opus in bona materia. How can you that are evil do good works? Good they may be materially, but not formally and eventually; such were the good parts and practices of Socrates, Aristides, Scipio, Atticus, Cato, and other honest heathens; they were no better than splendida peccata, glistering sins, because they failed,
1. Quoad fontem, they did not out of the good treasure of their hearts bring forth those good things; they were strangers to the life of God, to the new nature.
2. Quoad finem, they brought forth fruit to themselves, Hosea 10:1, they had not good aims in their good actions. Now, Bonum non sit nisi ex integra causa; malum ex quolibet defectu, say the schools.
No, not one] Usque ad unum, i.e. ad Christum, saith Austin, not considering the force of the Hebrew phrase, which importeth an utter denial of any mere man that of himself doeth good.