Psalms 58
King James Version (KJV) · English
1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? 2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; 5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. 6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord. 7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. 8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. 9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. 10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
Commentary — not Bible text
Psalms 58:1
PSALM 58
Psa 58:1-11. David's critical condition in some period of the Sauline persecution probably occasioned this Psalm, in which the Psalmist teaches that the innate and actual sinfulness of men deserves, and shall receive, God's righteous vengeance, while the pious may be consoled by the evidence of His wise and holy government of men.
1. O congregation--literally, "Oh, dumb"; the word used is never translated "congregation." "Are ye dumb? ye should speak righteousness," may be the translation. In any case, the writer remonstrates with them, perhaps a council, who were assembled to try his cause, and bound to give a right decision.
Psalms 58:2
2. This they did not design; but
weigh ... violence--or give decisions of violence. Weigh is a figure to express the acts of judges.
in the earth--publicly.
Psalms 58:3-5
3-5. describe the wicked generally, who sin naturally, easily, malignantly, and stubbornly.
Psalms 58:6
Psalms 58:7
7. which run continually--literally, "they shall go to themselves," utterly depart, as rapid mountain torrents.
he bendeth ... his arrows--prepares it. The term for preparing a bow applied to arrows (Psa 64:3).
let them ... pieces--literally, "as if they cut themselves off"--that is, become blunted and of no avail.
Psalms 58:8-9
8-9. Other figures of this utter ruin; the last denoting rapidity. In a shorter time than pots feel the heat of thorns on fire--
Psalms 58:10-11
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