Es spricht der Unweisen Mund wohl

At the end of 1523, Luther paraphrased Psalm 14 (Psalm 13 in Vulgata numbering), in Latin , attempting to make the psalms accessible to Protestant church services in German. As he did with "", Luther expanded the content of the psalm to show the precise situation of the early Reformation as a time of conflict. Luther wrote six stanzas of seven lines each. The hymn was one of the eight hymns in the first Lutheran hymnal, published 1524 in Nuremberg under the title (Some Christian songs), also called Achtliederbuch, which contained four songs by Luther, three by Speratus, and one by Justus Jonas. Later that same year it appeared in Erfurt in Eyn Enchiridion, and in Wittenberg in Johann Walter's choral hymnal in a five-part setting. == Melody and settings ==

In the Achtliederbuch, "", by Paul Speratus, was indicated as the singing tune for "". The hymn appeared with its own melody in the Walter hymnal: that melody, Zahn No. 4436, remained associated with it. The hymn was set by composers for instruments and for voices. Johann Pachelbel composed three chorale preludes for organ as part of before 1693. Johann Sebastian Bach set the hymn in a four-part setting, BWV 308, but without text. The text was added in the Neue Bach-Ausgabe. == Translation ==

The hymn was translated to English as "The mouth of fools doth God confess" and appeared in R. Massie's ''M. Luther's Spiritual Songs'' in 1854. It was copied to other hymnals. Other, less common translations were published in the 19th century. == See also ==