3:12a

turned away: This phrase refers to leaving the correct path. It is figurative language and refers to no longer living in a way that honors God. In some languages a literal translation would not have the correct meaning. If that is true in your language, explain the correct meaning in the text. For example:

turned aside ⌊from God’s ways⌋
-or-
turned aside ⌊to walk a bad path⌋
-or-
turned-their-backs on God

3:12b

together: Here this word refers to the “all” of 3:12a. It does not indicate that they all became worthless at the same time. In some languages a literal translation would indicate the wrong meaning. For a clearer indication of the correct meaning in English, the New American Bible, Revised Edition just repeats “all” from 3:12a. It says:

12a All have gone astray; 12b all alike are worthless

become worthless: The Greek word here refers to becoming good for nothing because of always doing bad things. Here are other ways to translate this Greek word:

have become debased (Revised English Bible)
-or-
are completely bad

3:12c

there is no one who does good: There are two ways to interpret the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as does good :

(1) It means goodness or kindness here. For example:

there is no one who does good (New International Version)

(Berean Standard Bible, English Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New American Standard Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition, King James Version, New Living Translation (2004), God’s Word, New Century Version, NET Bible, Revised English Bible)

(2) It means right here. For example:

no one does what is right (Good News Translation)

(Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, Contemporary English Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because many Greek lexicons support it.

not even one: The phrase not even one emphasizes the meaning of the phrase “no one.” Here are other ways to translate these words:

not a single one (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
no, not one

General Comment on 3:10b–12c

These words are similar to the words found in Psalms 14:1–3, 53:1–3, and Ecclesiastes 7:20.

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.