Christianity
Psalms 58Judgment on Unjust Rulers
Summary
Psalm 58 confronts rulers or judges who speak of righteousness yet weigh out violence with their hands. The wicked are said to go astray from birth, like a deaf adder that ignores the charmer. The psalmist calls on God to break their teeth and make them melt away like water, then pictures the righteous rejoicing at vengeance. It ends with the confession that there is a reward for the righteous and a God who judges on earth.
Key verse
“So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.”
Psalms 58:11
Themes
- Corrupt Justice
- Imprecation
- Divine Judgment
- Reward of the Righteous
Text
Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
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.
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.
Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
Text: King James Version (1611/1769), public domain.
Across traditions
Christianity
Psalm 82: God Judges the JudgesPsalm 82 also pictures God standing in judgment over unjust rulers who fail to defend the poor and fatherless.
Judaism
Tehillim 58 in the JPS 1917 TanakhThe first verse's word elem is difficult; the JPS 1917 renders the line as Do ye indeed speak as a righteous company?, while others read the word as gods or mighty ones, meaning rulers.
Questions about Psalms 58
Who is addressed at the start of Psalm 58?
The Hebrew is unclear. It may address human judges and rulers or, in some readings, divine beings thought to oversee the nations, as in Psalm 82.
Why does Psalm 58 ask God to break their teeth?
It is a fierce image of disarming predators. Imprecatory psalms like this hand the desire for justice over to God, and readers in many traditions wrestle with their language.