David employs a rhetorical question to expose the willful ignorance of evildoers who devour God’s people without restraint yet refuse to acknowledge Him. By framing this as a question rather than a statement, the psalmist invites reflection on the absurdity of their behavior and underscores their moral culpability.

David provides his own answer within the verse, declaring that these evildoers consume God’s people as casually as eating bread and refuse to call upon God, demonstrating their practical atheism and moral bankruptcy.

David’s question cuts to the heart of the evildoers’ self-deception. The Hebrew construction implies astonishment that those who practice wickedness could remain so ignorant of divine accountability. The verb know, yādaʿ, encompasses not merely intellectual awareness but experiential relationship and moral discernment. By asking rather than declaring their ignorance, David invites the wicked to confront their own folly while reassuring the faithful that God perceives the injustice. The metaphor of eating bread captures the routine, thoughtless nature of their oppression, treating violence as daily sustenance. The psalmist draws a direct connection between their failure to call upon God and their predatory behavior, revealing that practical atheism inevitably produces moral chaos. This rhetorical question thus serves both as prophetic indictment and pastoral comfort, assuring God’s people that their suffering does not escape divine notice.