Psalms

Psalms 58

11 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1Do you indeed speak righteousness, silent ones? Do you judge blamelessly, you sons of men? 2No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth. 3The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies. 4Their poison is like the poison of a snake, like a deaf cobra that stops its ear, 5which doesn’t listen to the voice of charmers, no matter how skillful the charmer may be. 6Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh. 7Let them vanish like water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt. 8Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun. 9Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns, he will sweep away the green and the burning alike. 10The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, 11so that men shall say, “Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous. Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”

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What others are saying

4 commentators · 25 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17142

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–5

We have reason to think that this psalm refers to the malice of Saul and his janizaries against David, because it bears the same inscription (Al-taschith, and Michtam of David) with that which goes before and that which follows, both which appear, by the…

v. 6–11

In these verses we have, I. David's prayers against his enemies, and all the enemies of God's church and people; for it is as such that he looks upon them, so that he was actuated by a public spirit in praying against them, and not by any private revenge. 1…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176311

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?.... Of the mighty, as in Psalm 82:1; the judges of the land, who were many, and therefore called a congregation, as it is necessary they should; for, being many, they are not so easily bribed; and besides, one…

v. 2

Yea, in heart ye work wickedness,.... So far were they from speaking righteousness, and judging uprightly. The heart of man is wickedness itself; it is desperately wicked, and is the shop in which all wickedness is wrought; for sinful acts are committed there…

v. 3

The wicked are estranged from the womb,.... Which original corruption of nature accounts for all the wickedness done by men: they are conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity, and are transgressors from the womb; they are alienated from God, and from that godly…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–18754

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 1–2

The text of Psa 58:2 runs: Do ye really dictate the silence of righteousness? i.e., that before which righteousness must become silent, as the collector (cf. Psa 56:1) appears to have read it (אלם = אלּוּם, B. Chullin 89a). But instead of אלם it is, with…

v. 3–5

After this bold beginning the boldest figures follow one another rapidly; and the first of these is that of the serpent, which is kept up longer than any of the others. The verb זוּר (cogn. סוּר) is intentionally written זור in this instance in a neuter, not…

v. 6–9

The verb הרס is used much in the same way in Psa 58:7 as ἀράσσειν (e.g., Iliad, xiii. 577, ἀπὸ δὲ τρυφάλειαν ἄραξεν), which presents a similar onomatope. The form ימּאסוּ is, as in Job 7:5, = ימּסּוּ. The Jewish expositors, less appropriately, compare…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 18718

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 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.

v. 3

describe the wicked generally, who sin naturally, easily, malignantly, and stubbornly.

v. 4–5

stoppeth her--literally, "his." ear--that is, the wicked man (the singular used collectively), who thus becomes like the deaf adder which has no ear.

World English Bible — Public domain