58
Psalm

Psalm 58

Psalm 58:1-11
To the one who conducts: Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David. 1Do you truly speak righteousness, O silence? Do you judge with uprightness, O sons of man? 2Indeed, in heart you work injustice; in the land you weigh out violence with your hands. 3The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from the belly, speaking lies. 4Their rage is like the rage of a serpent, like the rage of a deaf cobra that shuts its ear. 5Which does not hear the voice of the whisperers, of the one who unites spells, being wise. 6O God, overthrow their teeth in their lip; tear out the teeth of lions, O LORD. 7They flow away like water; they go about; he treads his arrow, and his arrows are like those that are circumcised. 8Like a melting snail he goes; like the miscarriage of a woman, they do not see the sun. 9Before they understand your pots, O Atad, like one alive, like burning anger he storms it. 10The righteous one rejoices, for he has seen vengeance; he washes his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11And man says, "Surely there is fruit for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges in the land."

Key words in this passage

Cross-references

Study notes

Psalm 58 confronts those entrusted with speech and judgment, charging that their hearts produce injustice while their hands weigh out violence in the land. The psalm traces this pattern to its source before birth, likening the wicked to a cobra that refuses every restraining word. From that diagnosis the prayer turns to God with the demand to break the teeth that bite and to scatter the figures themselves through images of water that vanishes, a snail that melts, and a life that never reaches the sun. When the righteous see the outcome, they rejoice at the visible repayment, and the wider circle concludes that fruit remains for the righteous because a God who judges stands in the land.

What is Psalm 58 about?

Psalm 58 begins by confronting those entrusted with speech and judgment. The opening line asks whether they truly speak righteousness, addressing them first as silence and then as sons of man. The next verse answers its own question by declaring that in heart they work injustice and in the land they weigh out violence with their hands. From there the psalm traces the source of this conduct back to birth, stating that the wicked are estranged from the womb, go astray from the belly, and speak lies. Their rage is compared to a serpent’s, specifically a deaf cobra that shuts its ear to any whisperer of spells. The psalm then shifts to direct petition, calling on God to overthrow their teeth in their lip and tear out the teeth of lions. Further images follow of dissolution and loss: water that flows away, a melting snail, a miscarriage that never sees the sun. These verses therefore set the immediate problem of corrupt human authority and the resulting cry for God to act against it before any resolution appears.

Where does this passage sit in Psalm?

Psalm 58 follows directly after the closing vow of Psalm 57, where the singer declares that steadfast love reaches to the heavens and calls for God’s glory over all the earth. The same superscription, “To the one who conducts: Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David,” links the two, and the same heading appears again at the head of Psalm 59. This cluster places three consecutive Davidic pieces side by side, each addressing threats from powerful opponents yet moving toward different resolutions.

Within that short sequence, Psalm 58 supplies the missing judicial step. Psalm 57 appeals for protection and ends in praise; Psalm 58 confronts those who “weigh out violence with their hands” and petitions God to break their power; Psalm 59 then returns to personal deliverance while again affirming God’s strength. The repeated command “Do Not Destroy” therefore functions less as a title for a single psalm than as a thread that holds the three together, marking a sustained plea that God act before the wicked finish their work.

The closing lines of Psalm 58, in which a man affirms that “there is fruit for the righteous” and “a God who judges in the land,” also prepare for the tone of the next several psalms. Psalm 60 opens with a communal lament over national defeat, yet quickly moves to the same conviction that God alone grants victory. By locating the question of righteous recompense inside an individual prayer, Psalm 58 keeps the larger collection from drifting into abstract statements about justice; each successive psalm must still wrestle with the same concrete demand that God’s judgment appear in the land before the righteous can speak with certainty.

How is the passage structured?

The psalm opens by directing two questions at an addressee called silence and at sons of man, each question probing whether speech and judgment align with righteousness and uprightness. The next line supplies its own answer by shifting from inquiry to assertion: the heart works injustice while the hands weigh out violence in the land. From this point the description lengthens into a portrait of origin and habit, stating that the wicked are estranged from the womb, go astray from the belly, and speak lies, then extending the portrait through two linked comparisons that begin with serpent rage and narrow to a deaf cobra that shuts its ear to the whisperers of spells.

At the sixth verse the address changes abruptly to direct petition, naming God and the LORD in successive lines and requesting that teeth be overthrown in the lip and torn from lions. The following verses replace petition with a chain of images that depict disappearance and futility: water that flows away, a melting snail, and a miscarriage that never sees the sun. A further line introduces an image of pots and Atad, placing the action before any understanding occurs and describing burning anger that storms the object.

The tenth verse turns to the righteous one, who rejoices because he has seen vengeance and washes his feet in the blood of the wicked. The final line broadens the statement to what man says, affirming that fruit exists for the righteous and that a God who judges remains in the land. The movement therefore proceeds from questions to sustained description, then to imperative address, then to successive similes of dissolution, and finally to the response of the righteous and a closing declaration.

What is the historical background?

The superscription labels the psalm a Miktam of David and directs it to the one who conducts with the phrase Do Not Destroy. Miktam appears in five other Davidic psalms and likely marks a recognized collection or compositional style rather than a fixed poetic form. The instruction Do Not Destroy probably names an existing melody or a set of psalms grouped for performance.

The opening questions address figures called silence and sons of man who are expected to speak righteousness and judge with uprightness. In the monarchic period such language typically targeted those entrusted with local adjudication, whether royal appointees or elders seated at the gate. Their described activity of weighing out violence with their hands evokes the balance scales used in legal and commercial transactions, where an official could tilt the outcome by dishonest measurement.

The comparison of the wicked to a deaf cobra that refuses the voice of whisperers draws on a familiar ancient Near Eastern practice of snake charming. Professional charmers recited spells to control venomous reptiles; the psalm uses the image to portray deliberate refusal of any restraining word. The petition that follows, asking God to overthrow teeth in the lip and tear out the teeth of lions, employs the same physical language found in treaty curses and royal inscriptions that threatened mutilation for covenant breakers.

Later verses invoke images of water that flows away, a melting snail, and a miscarriage that never sees the sun. These belong to a stock of dissolution motifs used across the ancient Levant to describe the sudden end of a life or lineage. The reference to pots and Atad remains obscure, yet the surrounding language of burning anger and storming suggests a cooking vessel overturned in sudden heat, a concrete picture of household ruin familiar to any agrarian audience.

The final declaration that man says there is a God who judges in the land assumes a setting in which justice is expected to be visible within the territory of Israel rather than deferred to a distant future. This expectation aligns with the covenantal claim that the land itself functions as the arena where divine oversight of human courts is demonstrated.

What does this passage teach about God?

The psalm confronts the corruption of those who hold power to speak and decide. Their hearts produce injustice while their hands measure out violence in the land, showing that authority itself has become a tool for harm rather than protection. This failure is not occasional but rooted earlier: the wicked stand estranged from the womb and speak lies from the belly, so that their rage behaves like a cobra that refuses any charm. Human judgment therefore cannot correct itself; it requires an outside intervention that only God supplies.

The petition asks God to break the teeth in their lip and remove the teeth of lions. Such language treats the mouth as the source of both false speech and devouring strength, so that silencing the one disables the other. The images that follow portray the wicked losing all substance: they flow away like water, move like a melting snail, and end as a miscarriage that never sees the sun. These pictures present dissolution as the fitting end for those who began their course already turned aside.

When the righteous one sees this outcome, he rejoices because vengeance has come. The rejoicing is not abstract approval of punishment but the concrete recognition that the wicked no longer threaten the land. The final line records what any person may then conclude: there is fruit for the righteous and a God who judges in the land." The psalm therefore ties the reality of divine judgment to visible results within ordinary life rather than to a future realm alone. God’s action restores the possibility that righteousness bears lasting consequence where human rulers have refused to uphold it.

What are the interpretive difficulties?

The opening address in verse 1 poses an immediate question about the identity of those spoken to. The psalm calls them both “silence” and “sons of man,” leaving unclear whether the term points to human judges who fail to speak or to some other group entrusted with authority. The supplied wording does not resolve whether the silence is deliberate refusal or simple incapacity.

Verse 3 states that the wicked are estranged from the womb and go astray from the belly. Readers have long asked whether this language describes an unchangeable condition fixed at birth or a pattern of conduct that begins early and hardens over time. The psalm itself offers no further comment on the possibility of later repentance.

The request in verse 6 that God overthrow teeth in the lip and tear out the teeth of lions raises a separate issue of motive. The petition follows directly from the serpent comparison in verses 4 and 5, where the wicked refuse to hear any charm. The text does not indicate whether the requested action aims at silencing further harm or at public demonstration of divine power.

Verse 9 contains the most visibly difficult line in the psalm. The phrasing “Before they understand your pots, O Atad” stands apart from the surrounding images of flowing water and melting snail. Ancient manuscripts show variation at this point, yet the line has been transmitted within the psalm’s plea for judgment that arrives before plans mature. The tradition therefore keeps the verse in place even while its precise reference remains uncertain.

The closing claim in verse 11 that “man says, Surely there is fruit for the righteous” invites reflection on whose voice is reported. The statement follows the scene of the righteous washing feet in the blood of the wicked, yet the psalm does not specify whether this recognition comes from the same people addressed at the beginning or from a wider circle of observers. The text records the affirmation without indicating how widely it will be accepted.

Movement by movement

The Opening Charge58:1-2

The direct question addresses those called silence and sons of man, inquiring whether they truly speak righteousness and judge with uprightness. The wording places the expected duties of speech and judgment in front of the addressees before any description of their actions. The next line answers by stating that in heart they work injustice and in the land they weigh out violence with their hands. This pairing locates the injustice first in inward activity and then in public measurement performed by the hands. The heart’s work supplies the content that the hands then distribute across the land. The address leaves the identity of silence unresolved, whether it names a refusal to speak or an inability to do so, and it does not specify whether sons of man points to appointed rulers or to humanity more broadly. In either case the questions target those whose position carries responsibility for upright judgment. The movement therefore begins the psalm by confronting the corruption of entrusted authority rather than by cataloguing general wickedness.

The Deep-Rooted Wickedness58:3-5

The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from the belly, speaking lies. This statement follows the earlier claim that injustice is worked in the heart and violence is weighed out by the hands, shifting attention from present conduct to its earliest source. The psalm presents the pattern of lies as already active before any later influence could shape it. Their rage is like the rage of a serpent, like the rage of a deaf cobra that shuts its ear, which does not hear the voice of the whisperers, of the one who unites spells, being wise. The image doubles the serpent comparison to stress both the venomous threat and the deliberate refusal to respond. A cobra that closes its ear blocks even the most skilled charmer, so the lies continue unchecked. The wording leaves open whether this estrangement describes an unchangeable state fixed at birth or simply explains why appeals to reason and justice produce no change in those who hold power.

The Cry for Broken Power58:6

The address turns directly to God with the demand to overthrow their teeth in their lip and tear out the teeth of lions. The image shifts from the earlier serpent that refuses any charm to a lion whose mouth must be emptied by force. Teeth in the lip stand for the immediate instrument of attack, so the petition targets the physical means by which these figures inflict harm rather than their inner disposition alone. The double wording, first in the lip and then as lions, keeps the focus on visible power that can still bite. This request follows the description of those who weigh out violence with their hands and speak lies from the belly, so the cry assumes that only an external act can stop what has been present since birth. The names O God and O LORD frame the line, marking the turn from diagnosis to direct appeal. Nothing in the wording indicates that the teeth will be removed gradually or that the lions will be tamed; the verbs call for an abrupt removal that leaves the capacity to harm gone.

Images of Sudden Dissolution58:7-9

Water that flows away supplies the first picture, its movement leaving no trace behind once the current passes. The same figures then appear as a snail that melts while it moves, its body dissolving into nothing as it proceeds. A third image places them beside the miscarriage of a woman that never reaches the sun, so that what begins never gains sight or substance. The final line turns to pots that remain ungrasped before Atad, with burning anger seizing the vessel while it is still alive and whole. Each comparison works by interruption rather than gradual decline. The wicked reach no settled place because the psalm places their end before any root can form or any purpose can finish. The language keeps the moment of removal abrupt, so that the earlier petition for broken teeth finds its answer in forms that simply cease rather than fight back. These pictures therefore stand apart from the serpent comparisons that preceded them, shifting attention from persistent rage to forms that cannot endure even their own beginning.

The Righteous Response and Affirmation58:10-11

The righteous one rejoices when he sees the vengeance that follows the earlier petitions for God to overthrow teeth and make the wicked flow away like water. The supplied wording links this joy immediately to the sight of that outcome, without any intervening human correction of the injustice that began in the heart and continued in the land. Washing his feet in the blood of the wicked places the response inside the same territory where violence had been weighed out by hands, turning the site of earlier harm into the place of visible repayment.

From that same sight a broader declaration arises. Man says that fruit exists for the righteous and that a God who judges stands in the land. The statement does not resolve whether the wicked’s estrangement from the womb can be reversed; it simply registers what the completed action makes plain. The two lines of the declaration therefore stand as the direct result of the vengeance now seen rather than as an independent claim about human nature.

Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.

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