A verse by verse commentary on Psalm 58 dealing with David praying for God to do justice and punish the wicked and reward the righteous. He seeks violent judgment on evil, and pleasant victory for the good.

1. PSALM 58 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
For the director of music. To the tune of “Do ot
Destroy.” Of David. A miktam.[b]
I TRODUCTIO
SPURGEO , "To the Chief Musician. Although David had his own case in his
mind's eye, yet he wrote not as a private person, but as an inspired prophet, and
therefore his song is presented, for public and perpetual use, to the appointed
guardian of the Temple psalmody. Altaschith. The wicked are here judged and
condemned, but over the godly the sacred "Destroy not" is solemnly pronounced.
Michtam of David. This is the fourth of the Psalms of the Golden Secret, and the
second of the "Destroy nots." These names if they serve for nothing else may be
useful to aid the memory. Men give names to their horses, jewels, and other
valuables, and these names are meant not so much to describe as to distinguish
them, and in some cases to set forth the owner's high esteem of his treasure; after
the same fashion the Oriental poet gave a title to the song he loved, and so aided his
memory, and expressed his estimation of the strain. We are not always to look for a
meaning in these superscriptions, but to treat them as we would the titles of poems,
or the names of tunes.
DIVISIO . The ungodly enemy is accused, Psalms 58:1-5; judgment is sought from
the judge, Psalms 58:6-8; and seen in prophetic vision as already executed, Psalms
58:9-11.
COKE, "Title. ‫אל‬ ‫תשׁחת‬ al tashcheth.— Bishop Patrick observes, that the order of
time, in placing this, the former, and the following psalms, is inverted; for the
occasion of the 59th was first. Then, upon Saul's missing David, he supposes him to
have called his council together; when they, to ingratiate themselves with the
reigning prince, adjudged David to be guilty of treason in aspiring to the throne of
Israel; which he thinks to have been the occasion of this psalm. And this was prior
to what happened in the cave which gave occasion to the last psalm.
ELLICOTT, "After a challenge to certain corrupt magistrates, the poet in this piece
shows his detestation of the wicked, and anticipates their fate. There is nothing in
the contents of the psalm to bear out the traditional title; but neither is there
anything to help us to fix on any other author or date. The same complaints of the

2. maladministration of justice often meet us in the prophetic books, and there is
therefore no need to bring the composition of the psalm down to a very late age,
especially when the vivacity of the language, and the originality of the imagery,
indicate the freshness and power of an early and vigorous age of literary activity.
The rhythm is elegant and sustained.
1 Do you rulers indeed speak justly?
Do you judge people with equity?
BAR ES, "Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? - Luther
renders this, “Are you then dumb, that you will not speak what is right, and judge what
is proper, ye children of men?” The meaning of the verse is exceedingly obscure; but
probably the whole sense of the psalm turns on it. The word rendered “congregation,”
‫אלם‬ 'êlem - occurs only in this place and in the title to Psa_56:1-13, “Jonath-elem-
rechokim.” See the notes at that title. The word properly means “dumbness, silence.”
Gesenius (Lexicon) renders it here, “Do ye indeed decree dumb justice?” that is, “Do ye
really at length decree justice, which so long has seemed dumb?” Professor Alexander
renders it, “Are ye indeed dumb when ye should speak righteousness?” The allusion is
clearly to some public act of judging; to a judicial sentence; to magistrates and rulers; to
people who “should” give a righteous sentence; to those in authority who “ought” to
pronounce a just opinion on the conduct of others.
The “fact” in the case on which the appeal is made seems to have been that they did
“not” do this; that their conduct was wicked and perverse; that no reliance could be
placed on their judicial decisions. Rosenmuller renders it, “There is, in fact, silence of
justice;” that is, justice is not declared or spoken. Perhaps the meaning of the phrase
may be thus expressed: “Is there truly a dumbness or silence of justice when ye speak?
do you judge righteously, O ye sons of men?” That is, “You indeed speak; you do declare
an opinion; you pronounce a sentence; but justice is, in fact, dumb or silent when you do
it. There is no correct or just judgment in the matter. The opinion which is declared is
based on error, and has its origin in a wicked heart.” There is no expression in the
original to correspond to the words “O congregation” in our translation, unless it is the
word ‫אלם‬ 'êlem, which never has this signification.
It is not so rendered in any of the versions. It is not easy to determine “who” is
referred to by this question. It cannot be, as is implied in our common version, that it is

3. to any “congregation,” any people gathered together for the purpose of pronouncing
judgment. Yet it is evidently a reference to some persons, or classes of persons, who were
expected to “judge,” or to whom it pertained to pass judgment; and the most natural
supposition is that the reference is to the rulers of the nation - to Saul, and the heads of
the government. If the supposition is correct that the psalm was composed, like Psa_
56:1-13; Psa_57:1-11; 59, in the time of the Sauline persecutions, and that it belongs to
the same “group” of psalms, then it would have reference to Saul and to those who were
associated with him in persecuting David. The subject of the psalm would then be the
unjust judgments which they passed on him in treating him as an enemy of the
commonwealth; in regarding him as an outlaw, and in driving him from his places of
refuge as if hunting him down like a wild beast. The contents of the psalm well accord
with this explanation.
Do ye judge uprightly? - Do you judge right things? are your judgments in
accordance with truth and justice?
O ye sons of men - Perhaps referring to the fact that in their judgments they showed
that they were people - influenced by the common passions of people; in other words,
they showed that they could not, in forming their judgments, rise above the corrupt
passions and prejudices which usually influence and sway mankind.
CLARKE, "Do ye indeed speak righteousness - Or, O cabinet seeing ye profess
to act according to the principles of justice, why do ye not give righteous counsels and
just decisions, ye sons of men? Or, it may be an irony: What excellent judges you are!
well do ye judge according to law and justice, when ye give decisions not founded on any
law, nor supported by any principle of justice! To please your master, ye pervert
judgment; and take part against the innocent, in order to retain your places and their
emoluments. Saul’s counsellors appear to have done so, though in their consciences they
must have been satisfied of David’s innocence.
GILL, "Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?.... Of the mighty, as
in Psa_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 may see that in a cause which another does not. The word signifies a "sheaf" (t); and
so it is by some rendered, to which a bench or assembly of judges may be compared;
because consisting of many, and a select body, who should unite together in a sentence
or decree, and act uprightly, like a sheaf of wheat standing upright; see Gen_37:7; some
think the word has the signification of dumbness, or silence; so Jarchi and R. Moses (u);
as "elem" in Psa_56:1, title, and render it, "do ye indeed speak dumb justice?" or "the
dumbness of justice" (w); or are you dumb, or your mouth silent, when ye should speak
righteousness? and so the psalmist accuses them for their criminal silence, in not
contradicting Saul and his courtiers when they spake against him; and for not advising
him to another kind of conduct towards him. All men ought to speak that which is right
and truth; but especially judges on the bench, who are to judge the people with just
judgment, Deu_16:18; but here this is doubted of, and called in question; at least their
sincerity in giving judgment: yea, it is denied; for this interrogation carries in it a strong
denial; and the meaning is, that they did not speak righteousness, or that which was just

4. and right in the cause of David, when before them;
do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? no, they did not; they were unjust judges.
The psalmist calls them "the sons of men", as in 1Sa_26:19, in distinction from God the
Judge of all, and to put them in mind of their frailty and mortality; for though they were
gods by office, they were but men, and should die like men, and be accountable to the
supreme Judge for all their proceedings in judgment here, Psa_82:1.
HE RY 1-2, "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 title, to have been penned with reference to that persecution through
which God preserved him (Al-taschith - Destroy not), and therefore the psalms he then
penned were precious to him, Michtams - David's jewels, as Dr. Hammond translates it.
In these verses David, not as a king, for he had not yet come to the throne, but as a
prophet, in God's name arraigns and convicts his judges, with more authority and justice
than they showed in prosecuting him. Two things he charges them with:
I. The corruption of their government. They were a congregation, a bench of justices,
nay, perhaps, a congress or convention of the states, from whom one might have
expected fair dealing, for they were men learned in the laws, had been brought up in the
study of these statutes and judgments, which were so righteous that those of other
nations were not to be compared with them. One would not have thought a congregation
of such could be bribed and biassed with pensions, and yet, it seems, they were, because
the son of Kish could do that for them which the son of Jesse could not, 1Sa_22:7. He
had vineyards, and fields, and preferments, to give them, and therefore, to please him,
they would do any thing, right or wrong. Of all the melancholy views which Solomon
took of this earth and its grievances, nothing vexed him so much as to see that in the
place of judgment wickedness was there, Ecc_3:16. So it was in Saul's time. 1. The
judges would not do right, would not protect or vindicate oppressed innocency (Psa_
58:1): “Do you indeed speak righteousness, or judge uprightly? No; you are far from it;
your own consciences cannot but tell you that you do not discharge the trust reposed in
you as magistrates, by which you are bound to be a terror to evil-doers and a praise to
those that do well. Is this the justice you pretend to administer? Is this the patronage,
this the countenance, which an honest man and an honest cause may expect from you?
Remember you are sons of men; mortal and dying, and that you stand upon the same
level before God with the meanest of those you trample upon, and must yourselves be
called to an account and judged. You are sons of men, and therefore we may appeal to
yourselves, and to that law of nature which is written in every man's heart: Do you
indeed speak righteousness? And will not your second thoughts correct what you have
done?” Note, It is good for us often to reflect upon what we say with this serious
question, Do we indeed speak righteousness? that we may unsay what we have spoken
amiss and may proceed no further in it. 2. They did a great deal of wrong; they used their
power for the support of injury and oppression (Psa_58:2): In heart you work
wickedness (all the wickedness of the life is wrought in the heart). It intimates that they
wrought with a great deal of plot and management, not by surprise, but with
premeditation and design, and with a strong inclination to it and resolution in it. The
moire there is of the heart in any act of wickedness the worse it is, Ecc_8:11. And what
was their wickedness? It follows, “You weigh the violence of your hands in the earth” (or

5. in the land), “the peace of which you are appointed to be the conservators of.” They did
all the violence and injury they could, either to enrich or avenge themselves, and they
weighed it; that is, 1. They did it with a great deal of craft and caution: “You frame it by
rule and lines” (so the word signifies), “that it may effectually answer your mischievous
intentions; such masters are you of the art of oppression.” 2. They did it under colour of
justice. They held the balances (the emblem of justice) in their hands, as if they designed
to do right, and right is expected from them, but the result is violence and oppression,
which are practised the more effectually for being practised under the pretext of law and
right.
JAMISO , "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.
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.
K&D 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 (‫ם‬ ֶ‫ל‬ ֵ‫א‬ = ‫וּם‬ ִ‫,א‬ B. Chullin 89a). But instead of ‫ם‬ ֶ‫ל‬ ֵ‫א‬ it
is, with Houbigant, J. D. Michaelis, Mendelssohn, and others, to be read ‫ם‬ ִ‫ל‬ ֵ‫א‬ (= ‫ים‬ ִ‫ל‬ ֵ‫,א‬ as
in Exo_15:11), as an apostrophe of those who discharge the godlike office of rulers and
judges. Both the interrogative ‫ם‬ָ‫נ‬ ְ‫מ‬ ֻ‫ֽא‬ ַ‫ה‬ (with ŭ as is always the case at the head of
interrogative clauses), num vere, which proceeds from doubt as to the questionable
matter of fact (Num_22:37; 1Ki_8:27; 2Ch_6:18), and the parallel member of the verse,
and also the historical circumstances out of which the Psalm springs, demand this
alteration. Absalom with his followers had made the administration of justice the means
of stealing from David the heart of his people; he feigned to be the more impartial judge.
Hence David asks: Is it then really so, ye gods (‫ים‬ ִ‫ל‬ ֵ‫א‬ like ‫ים‬ ִ‫ּה‬‫ל‬ ֱ‫,א‬ Psa_82:1, and here, as
there, not without reference to their superhumanly proud and assumptive bearing), that
ye speak righteousness, that ye judge the children of men in accordance with justice?
Nay, on the contrary (‫ף‬ፍ, imo, introducing an answer that goes beyond the first No), in
heart (i.e., not merely outwardly allowing yourselves to be carried away) ye prepare
villanies (‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ ָ , as in Mic_2:1; and ‫ּת‬‫ל‬‫ּו‬‫ע‬, as in Psa_64:7, from ‫ה‬ ָ‫ּול‬‫ע‬ = ‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ְ‫ו‬ ַ‫,ע‬ Ps 92:16, Job_
5:16, with ô = a + w), in the land ye weigh out the violence of your hands (so that
consequently violence fills the balances of your pretended justice). ‫ם‬ ָ‫ד‬ፎ ‫י‬ֵ‫נ‬ ְ in Psa_58:2 is
the accusative of the object; if it had been intended as a second vocative, it ought to have
been ‫ישׁ‬ ִ‫י־א‬ַ‫נ‬ ְ (Psa_4:3). The expression is inverted in order to make it possible to use the
heavy energetic futures. ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ (mostly erroneously marked with Pazer) has Athnach, cf.
Psa_35:20; Psa_76:12.

6. SBC, "In the Prayer-book version this text stands, "Are your minds set upon
righteousness, O ye congregation?" This includes the other, and goes deeper. We shall
not speak of that upon which our minds are not first set.
I. Take these words in their large and general signification, and what do they mean? Are
you in earnest? Are you in earnest about your own spiritual concerns? Are your
affections "set on things above, not on things on the earth"? Have you concentrated your
minds upon religion as upon a focus?
II. But the words have evidently a further distinctiveness. The word "righteous" in the
Bible—at least, in the New Testament application of it—generally refers to that perfect
righteousness which Jesus has both made and purchased for His people. The inquiry
therefore in its true force runs thus: Are your minds set on finding pardon and
justification through that Saviour who shed His very blood for us, that we, poor,
banished, but not expelled, ones, might come back and find a home in our heavenly
Father’s love?
III. He who is, or wishes to be, righteous in his Saviour’s righteousness is always the
man who is also the most righteous in the discharge of all the duties of this present life.
The question therefore takes another easy and necessary transit: In this very place, at
this very moment, are you honest—honest to God and to your own souls in the work in
which you are engaged? You have received the stewardship of many talents; where is the
capital, and where is the interest ready to be given back to the Proprietor when He
comes? "Are your minds set upon righteousness, O ye congregation?"
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 123.
CALVI , "1.Do ye indeed speak righteousness? In putting this question to his
enemies, by way of challenge, David displays the boldness of conscious rectitude. It
argues that the justice of our cause is demonstratively evident when we venture to
appeal to the opposite party himself; for were there any ground to question its
justice, it would show an absurd degree of confidence to challenge the testimony of
an adversary. David comes forward with the openness of one who was supported by
a sense of his integrity, and repels, by a declaration forced from their own lips, the
base charges with which they blackened his character in the estimation of such as
were simple enough to believe them. “Ye yourselves,” as if he had said, “can attest
my innocence, and yet persecute me with groundless calumnies. Are you not
ashamed of such gross and gratuitous oppression?” It is necessary, however, to
determine who they were whom David here accuses. He calls them a congregation,
and again, sons of men The Hebrew word ‫,אלם‬ elem, which I have rendered
congregation, some consider to be an epithet applied to righteousness, and translate
dumb; (346) but this does not express the meaning of the Psalmist. Interpreters
differ as to what we should understand by the term congregation. Some think that
he adverts, by way of accusation, to the meetings which his enemies held, as is usual
with those who entertain wicked designs, for the purpose of concerting their plans. I
rather incline to the opinion of those who conceive that he here gives (although only
in courtesy) the usual title of honor to the counsellors of Saul, who met professedly
to consult for the good of the nation, but in reality with no other intention than to

7. accomplish his destruction. Others read, in the congregation — a translation which
gives the same meaning to the passage we have already assigned to it, but is not
supported by the natural construction of the words. The congregation which David
addresses is that assembly which Saul convened, ostensibly for lawful objects, but
really for the oppression of the innocent. The term, sons of men, which he
immediately afterwards applies to them — taking back, as it were, the title of
courtesy formerly given — would seem to be used in contempt of their character,
being, as they were, rather a band of public robbers than a convention of judges.
Some, however, may be of opinion, that in employing this expression, David had in
his eye the universality of the opposition which confronted him — almost the whole
people inclining to this wicked factions and that he here issues a magnanimous
defiance to the multitude of his enemies. Meanwhile, the lesson taught us by the
passage is apparent. Although the whole world be set against the people of God they
need not fear, so long as they are supported by a sense of their integrity, to challenge
kings and their counsellors, and the promiscuous mob of the people. Should the
whole world refuse to hear us, we must learn, by the example of David, to rest
satisfied with the testimony of a good conscience, and with appealing to the tribunal
of God. Augustine, who had none but the Greek version in his hands, is led by this
verse into a subtle disquisition upon the point, that the judgment of men is usually
correct when called to decide upon general principles, but fails egregiously in the
application of these principles to particular cases, (347) through the blinding and
warping influences of their evil passions. All this may be plausible, and, in its own
place, useful, but proceeds upon a complete misapprehension of the meaning of the
passage.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 1. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? The
enemies of David were a numerous and united band, and because they so
unanimously condemned the persecuted one, they were apt to take it for granted
that their verdict was a right one. "What everybody says must be true, "is a lying
proverb based upon the presumption which comes of large combinations. Have we
not all agreed to hound the man to the death, and who dare hint that so many great
ones can be mistaken? Yet the persecuted one lays the axe at the root by requiring
his judges to answer the question whether or not they were acting according to
justice. It were well if men would sometimes pause, and candidly consider this. Some
of those who surrounded Saul were rather passive than active persecutors; they held
their tongues when the object of royal hate was slandered; in the original, this first
sentence appears to be addressed to them, and they are asked to justify their silence.
Silence gives consent. He who refrains from defending the right is himself an
accomplice in the wrong.
Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Ye too are only men though dressed in a
little brief authority. Your office for men, and your relation to men both bind you to
rectitude; but have ye remembered this? Have ye not put aside all truth when ye
have condemned the godly, and united in seeking the overthrow of the innocent?
Yet in doing this be not too sure of success, or ye are only the "sons of men, "and
there is a God who can and will reverse your verdicts.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS

8. Title. The proper meaning of the root of Michtam is to engrave, or to stamp a metal.
It therefore, in strictness, means, an engraving or sculpture. Hence in the
Septuagint, it is translated sthlografia, an inscription on a column. I would venture
to offer a conjecture in perfect harmony with this view. It appears by the titles of
four out of these six Psalms, that they were composed by David while flying and
hiding from the persecutions of Saul. What, then, should hinder us from imagining
that they were inscribed on the rocks and on the sides of the caves which so often
formed his place of refuge? This view would accord with the strict etymological
meaning of the word, and explain the rendering of the Septuagint. John Jebb, in "A
Literal Translation of the Book of Psalms, "1846.
(See also Explanatory otes on Psalms 6:1-10; Psalms 56:1-13. "Treasury of
David", Vol. 1., pp. 222-23; Vol. 3, p. 40.)
Whole Psalm. Kimchi says this Psalm was written on account of Abner, and the rest
of Saul's princes, who judged David as a rebel against the government, and said it
was for Saul to pursue after him to slay him; for if they had restrained him, Saul
would not have pursued after him; and indeed they seem to be wicked judges who
are addressed in this Psalm; do not destroy. Arama says, it declares the wickedness
of Saul's judges. John Gill.
Ver. 1. Are ye dumb (when) ye (should) speak righteousness (and) judge equitably,
sons of men? The first words are exceedingly obscure. One of them mla, not
expressed in the English, and the ancient versions, means dumbness, as in Psalms
61:1, and seems to be here used as a strong expression for entirely speechless. In
what respect they were thus dumb, is indicated by the verb which follows, but the
connection can be made clear in English only by a circumlocution. The
interrogation, are ye indeed, expresses wonder, as at something scarcely credible.
Can it be so? Is it possible? are you really silent, you, whose very office is to speak
for God, and against the sins of men? Joseph Addison Alexander.
Ver. 1. O congregation, O band, or company. The Hebrew alem, which hath the
signification of binding as a sheaf or bundle, seemeth here to be a company that are
combined or confederate. Henry Ainsworth.
ELLICOTT, "(1) Congregation.—This rendering comes of a mistaken derivation of
the Hebrew word êlem, which offers some difficulty. As pointed, it must mean
silence (comp. Psalms 56 title, the only other place it occurs); and some, regardless
of sense, would render, “do ye truly in silence speak righteousness.” Of the many
conjectures on the passage, we may choose between reading elim (short for elîm =
gods), and here, as in Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:8; Psalms 82:6, applied to the judges)
and ulam (with the LXX., Syriac, and Arabic, in the sense of but. To speak
righteousness is, of course, to pronounce a just judgment. If we prefer the former of
these (with most modern scholars), it is best to take sons of men in the accusative
rather than the vocative, do ye judge with equity the sons of men.
TRAPP, "Psalms 58:1 « To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David. » Do
ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of
men?
Ver. 1. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?] Or, O council; you that

9. are gathered together on a knot, under a pretence of doing justice, and promoting
the public good by giving faithful advice to the king. Una ligati, ut Genesis 37:7, vel
ab ‫אלם‬ Mutus quia congregatio ante oratorem est quasi mutus (Aben Ezra).
Colloquitur Abnero et reliquis, saith Kimchi, David here talketh to Abner and the
rest, who, to please Saul, pronounced David a rebel, and condemned him absent for
an enemy to the state. And forasmuch as there is no greater injury than that which
passeth under the name of right, he sharply debateth the matter with them whom he
knew of old to be very corrupt; painting them out in their colours, and denouncing
God’s heavy judgments against them for their unjust dealings with him. The word
rendered congregation is not found elsewhere in that sense. It signifieth dumbness;
and is by the Spanish translators rendered, O audientia by antiphrasis, ut lucus,
quia non lucet.
Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?] i.e. O ye carnal profane persons that
savour not the things of the Spirit; q.d. ye are fit persons to make counsellors of
state. Sedes prima et vita ima agree not. Dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in luto,
saith Salvian. You do much misbecome your places.
WHEDO , "1. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation—Much
perplexity and doubt attend the rendering of this clause. The difficulty lies in the
‫,אלם‬ translated in the vocative, “O congregation.” Its verbal root signifies, to bind, to
grow dumb, as if tongue-tied; and the noun signifies dumbness, silence, and so it is
used in Psalm lvi, title, the only other place of its occurrence. Our English Version
derives the idea of “congregation” from the signification to bind, which is not
satisfactory. The address is not to the “congregation,” but to the judges. o light of
criticism has hitherto given a smooth sense to the passage. If we retain the word in
question, and not, as many, throw it out as an interpolation, we may retain the
radical sense to bind, and consider the judges or leaders of the nation addressed as
binders of the people by their oppressive decrees, or as confederates arrayed against
justice; or, rejecting the wordas an interpolation, read, “Do ye indeed decree
justice?” (Delitzsch;) or, “Are ye indeed dumb [when] ye [should] speak
righteousness [and] judge equitably?”— Alexander. It would seem safer to just
criticism to retain the word in the text.
COFFMA , "Verse 1
PSALM 58
PRAYER FOR THE PU ISHME T OF THE WICKED
SUPERSCRIPTIO : FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIA ; SET TO ALTASHETH.
A PSALM OF DAVID. MICHTAM.
The title selected here is that which appears in the American Standard Version.
Again we find no convincing evidence capable of denying that the psalm is truly one

10. of those written by David.
This is another of the so-called imprecatory psalms. It expresses a seven-fold curse
upon evil men and mentions the rejoicing of the righteous that such a judgment will
actually fall upon the wicked. It is only a very foolish, naive, and immature type of
`righteous person' who is unable to find in his soul an element of rejoicing and
thanksgiving at the Biblical prospect of the final utter overthrow of wickedness.
What that overthrow means, of course, is the punishment and destruction of Satan
himself, who fully deserves his appointment in the lake of fire (which we consider
metaphorical). Should God allow Satan to continue his career of deception, murder,
rape, arson, cruelty, hatred, oppression, etc. in a degree that runs beyond all
vocabularies to describe it, and in an intensity that spares no one whomsoever,
young, old, innocent, or helpless? Repeat, should God allow that Evil Being
unlimited freedom to continue his evil assault upon mankind indefinitely; or should
God put the hook in his nose and drag him to the death and destruction that he
deserves? This is the great question. God has already told us how it will be
answered.
The punishment of the wicked is an incidental thing altogether to the overthrow of
Satan. Hell, with all of its implications of terror, described in the Bible under many
metaphors, was never designed for evil men, but only for Satan and the fallen angels
who supported him. Christ died on Calvary to prevent any man from ever suffering
the fate of Satan.
However, until that time when Satan is destroyed, the horrible wretchedness of
humanity shall continue to be achieved by Satan's depredations against men. It is
the rejoicing in that final victory over Satan that is always meant when the Bible
speaks of the righteous rejoicing over the judgment against evil.
Pitiful indeed as the fate of wicked men will be, it must ever be remembered that
such was `their choice'; and that no one compelled them to become servants of
Satan. Of course, Our Lord taught us to pray for wicked men; and that is fulfilled in
every prayer for their conversion.
As for the authorship of this psalm and the occasion when it was written, it appears
to us that Delitzsch has a correct understanding of it.
"This Psalm belongs to the times of Absalom; and the language here does not
warrant our denying it to David. That it is indeed David who speaks here is to a
certain extent guaranteed by Psalms 64 and Psalms 111. The same David who wrote
one of them wrote all three."[1]
The paragraphing suggested by Kidner is adequate.
I. Tyrants Addressed (Psalms 58:1-2).
II. Tyrants Described (Psalms 58:3-5).

11. III. Tyrants Prayed Against (Psalms 58:6-9).
IV. Tyrants Rejoiced Over (Psalms 58:10-11).
TYRA TS ADDRESSED
Psalms 58:1-2
"Do ye indeed in silence speak righteousness?
Do ye indeed judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
ay, in heart ye work wickedness;
Ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth."
The first thing the serious Bible student will be concerned about here is the false
translation of this place in the RSV, which gives us this for Psalms 58:1, "Do you
indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the sons of men uprightly?"
The RSV translators did indeed give us an alternative reading which is a thousand
times better than their translation, `mighty lords,' instead of `gods' in the first
clause.
The error in this translation is seen in the postulations of many commentators who
accept `gods' here as a council of pagan deities whom God allowed to rule the
nations. The persons addressed in these first two verses are not divine persons at all,
despite the assertions of some writers.
The error of this translation is not that the Hebrew word of two consonants (L-M)
cannot be so translated; but that such a translation is ridiculous on the face of it.
The word can also mean, "rams," "leaders," "mighty lords," "judges," etc. Why
should the translators have chosen a word capable of such perverted implications?
The Biblical word "gods" is frequently applied to human authorities, leaders or
judges, as in Exodus 21:6; 22:8; Deuteronomy 19:17; and Psalms 82:1,6. to name
only a few. The words of Christ have a special application here. When the Pharisees
threatened to stone him for saying that he was the Son of God, Jesus replied to them
by quoting Psalms 82:6, of which he said, "If he called them gods unto whom the
Word of God came (and the Scriptures cannot be broken), how can you say of Him
whom the Father sent into the world, `Thou blasphemest,' because I said I am the
Son of God?" (John 10:34,35).
We are indeed thankful for those writers who discern what is truly meant here.
These verses are addressed to those who discharge the god-like offices of judges and
rulers.[2] "O ye gods," means `mighty ones' in the sense of judges.[3]

12. The title `gods' is given in flattery and irony.[4]
Despite the various translations which the Hebrew here allows, these persons
addressed here are human rulers.[5]
"O ye gods," is an expression of sarcasm directed against unjust judges.[6]
That the unjust persons addressed here are indeed human beings and not "gods" is
proved by the parallelism which is such a distinctive feature of Hebrew poetry.
"Do ye judge rightly, O ye sons of men" (Psalms 58:1). This is the second clause of
verse one; and the parallelism inherent in the poetry here shows that whoever is
addressed in the first clause, it must be someone who is also identified by the phrase
"ye sons of men." The RSV translators, of course, changed this also in order to
support their error in the first clause. As someone has said, "One poor translation
always leads to another."
ow, just "Who were these `mighty lords,' anyway? They were, in all probability
the authorities, deputy rulers, and judges of the court of Israel's King David during
the days leading up to the rebellion of his son Absalom. However, there are
overtones here of the judgment of God against all wicked men.
"Yea, in heart ye work wickedness" (Psalms 58:2). The reign of crooked judges and
other evil authorities in high office was confined to no particular period of Israel's
history. We might almost say that it was the accepted "modus operandi" of the vast
majority of Israel's rulers that reached some kind of a wicked climax during the
personal ministry of Christ. Jeremiah designated the whole nation as "a corrupt
vine"; Isaiah announced their judicial hardening; and Ezekiel solemnly declared
that Israel became worse than Sodom and Gomorrah (Ezekiel 16).
SBC, "THIS psalmist’s fiery indignation against unjust judges and evil-doers
generally is not kindled by personal wrongs. The psalm comes hot from a heart
lacerated by the sight of widespread corruption, and constrained to seek for
patience in the thought of the swift sweeping away of evil men before their plans are
effected. Stern triumph in the punitive manifestations of God’s rule, and keen sense
of the need of such, are its keynotes. Vehement emotion stirs the poet’s imagination
to heap together strong and, in part, obscure metaphors. Here emphatically
"Indignatio facit versus." The psalm is Dantesque in its wealth of sombre
imagination, which produces the most solemn effects with the homeliest metaphors,
and in its awed and yet satisfied contemplation of the fate of evil-doers. It parts itself
into three portions, -a dark picture of abounding evil (Psalms 58:1-5); its
punishment prayed for (Psalms 58:6-9); and the consequent joy of the righteous and
widespread recognition of the rule of a just God (Psalms 58:10-11).
The abrupt question of Psalms 58:1 speaks of long pent-up indignation, excited by
protracted experience of injustice, and anticipates the necessary negative answer

13. which follows. The word rendered by the A.V. and R.V. "in silence" or "dumb" can
scarcely be twisted into intelligibility, and the small alteration of reading required
for the rendering "gods" is recommended by the similar expressions in the kindred
Psalms 82:1-8. Taken thus, the question is hurled at the appointed depositaries of
judicial power and supreme authority. There is no need to suppose, with Hupfeld
and others, whom Cheyne follows, that these "gods" are supernatural beings
intrusted with the government of the world. The explanation of the name lies in the
conception of such power as bestowed by God, and in some sense a delegation of His
attribute; or, as our Lord explained the similar name in Psalms 82:1-8, as given
because "to them the word of God came." It sets in sinister light the flagrant
contradiction between the spirit in which these men exercised their office and the
source from which they derived it, and thus sharpens the reproach of the question.
The answer is introduced by a particle conveying a strong opposition to the previous
supposition couched in the question. "Heart" and "hands" are so obviously
antithetical, that the alteration of "in heart" to "ye all" is not acceptable, though it
removes the incongruity of plans being wrought in the heart, the seat of devices, not
of actions. "Work" may be here used anomalously, as we say "work out," implying
the careful preparation of a plan, and there may even be a hint that the true acts are
the undone acts of the heart. The unaccomplished purpose is a deed, though never
clothed in outward fact. Evil determined is, in a profound sense, done before it is
done; and, in another equally solemn, not done when "‘tis done," as Macbeth has
taught us. The "act," as men call it, follows: "In the earth"-not only in the heart-"ye
weigh out the violence of your hands." The scales of justice are untrue. Instead of
dispensing equity, as they were bound to do, they clash into the balance the weight
of their own violence.
It is to be noted that the psalm says no more about the sins of unjust authorities, but
passes on to describe the "wicked" generally. The transition may suggest that under
unjust rulers all wrong doers find impunity, and so multiply and worsen; or it may
simply be that these former are now merged in the class to which they belong. The
type of "wickedness" gibbeted is the familiar one of malicious calumniators and
persecutors. From birth onwards they have continuously been doers of evil. The
psalmist is not laying down theological propositions about heredity, but describing
the inveterate habit of sin which has become a second nature, and makes
amendment hopeless. The reference to "lies" naturally suggests the image of the
serpent’s poison. An envenomed tongue is worse than any snake’s bite. And the
mention of the serpent stimulates the poet’s imagination to yet another figure, which
puts most graphically that disregard ox warnings, entreaties, and every voice,
human or Divine, that marks long-practised, customary sinfulness. There can be no
more striking symbol of determined disregard to the calls of patient Love and the
threats of outraged Justice than that of the snake lying coiled, with its head in the
centre of its motionless folds, as if its ears were stopped by its own bulk, while the
enchanter plays his softest notes and speaks his strongest spells in vain. There are
such men, thinks this psalmist. There are none whom the mightiest spell, that of
God’s love in Christ, could not conquer and free from their poison; but there are
such as will close their ears to its plaintive sweetness. This is the condemnation that
light is come and men love darkness, and had rather lie coiled in their holes than

14. have their fangs extracted.
ISBET, "SET O BEI G RIGHTEOUS
‘Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?’
Psalms 58:1
In the Prayer Book Version this text stands, ‘Are your minds set upon
righteousness, O ye congregation?’ This includes the other, and goes deeper. We
shall not speak of that upon which our minds are not first set.
I. Take these words in their large and general signification, and what do they
mean?—Are you in earnest? Are you in earnest about your own spiritual concerns?
Are your affections ‘set on things above, not on things on the earth’? Have you
concentrated your minds upon religion as upon a focus?
II. But the words have evidently a further distinctiveness.—The word ‘righteous’ in
the Bible—at least, in the ew Testament application of it—generally refers to that
perfect righteousness which Jesus has both made and purchased for His people. The
inquiry therefore in its true force runs thus: Are your minds set on finding pardon
and justification through that Saviour who shed His very blood for us, that we,
poor, banished, but not expelled, ones, might come back and find a home in our
heavenly Father’s love?
III. He who is, or wishes to be, righteous in His Saviour’s righteousness is always the
man who is also the most righteous in the discharge of all the duties of this present
life.—The question therefore takes another easy and necessary transit: In this very
place, at this very moment, are you honest—honest to God and to your own souls in
the work in which you are engaged? You have received the stewardship of many
talents; where is the capital, and where is the interest ready to be given back to the
Proprietor when He comes? ‘Are your minds set upon righteousness, O ye
congregation?’
—Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration
‘In the opening verses we have the picture of an evil time. Iniquity is enthroned in
high places; especially the judgment seat is corrupted. Perhaps the opening words
ought to be as they are given in the margin of the Revised Version, “Is the
righteousness ye should speak dumb?” The Psalmist is accusing the administrators
of justice of bribery. In the second verse, he describes them as weighing out violence
in the scales in which justice ought to be weighed. That is, they observed all the
solemn forms of justice, but had no regard for the interests of those who could not
pay for their verdicts. In the East this has always been, and is at the present day,
one of the leading features of an evil time. Justice cannot be procured; the well-
doing man is harassed by his wicked neighbours, and has no redress.’
ISBET, "FAITH I RIGHTEOUS ESS
I. The throne of iniquity (Psalms 58:1-5).

15. II. The throne of God (Psalms 58:6-9).
III. The spectacle of justice (Psalms 58:10-11).
Illustrations
(1) ‘ ot only does the Psalmist, inspired by the vision of the eternal throne, foresee
the issue, but he earnestly pleads for it; and he does so on two grounds—that the
righteous may obtain the reward of their righteousness, and that all men may see
that there is a God that judgeth in the earth. The triumph of injustice can only be
temporary. There is a day coming when all the unjust judgments both of corrupt
tribunals and of unrighteous society will be reversed. But justice does not altogether
linger till the judgment day. Even now God asserts Himself and vindicates His own;
and, when He does so, the instincts of every honest heart must rise up to welcome
Him.’
(2) ‘This psalm is against wicked rulers. The word rendered congregation (1) means
also “mighty ones,” or “rulers.” It has been suggested that it was written on account
of Abner and the rest of Saul’s princes, who judged David as a rebel and outlaw,
and urged Saul to pursue him. It is the fourth of the Golden Psalms. For
superscription, see also 57. The word Michtam signifies inscription, and some have
conjectured that the six psalms thus described, and which were written during the
days when David was a fugitive, were inscribed on the sides of the caves in which he
took refuge.’
PETT, "Verse 1-2
Heading (Psalms 58:1 a).
‘For the Chief Musician, set to Al-tashheth. A Psalm of David. Michtam.
The heading is a reproduction of the heading to Psalms 57 without the final clause.
Psalms 58 is another of the many Psalms dedicated to the Choirmaster or Chief
Musician. This may simply indicate Psalms put at his disposal. It is set to the tune
Al-tashheth (‘Do not destroy’), and is one of the ‘Psalms of David’. Michtam is
probably to be seen as a plea for protection.
Having himself been a victim of injustice, both at the hands of Saul, and at the
hands of his duly appointed authorities, David inveighs against injustice in all its
forms. It has brought home to him the sinfulness of man in general, and he calls on
God to deal with it wherever it is found. He then ends the Psalm in the triumphant
assurance that righteousness will prevail because it is God Who judges the earth.
Some have seen in the psalm a reference to Absalom’s rebellion, but it is difficult to
see how the man who was so grieved over Absalom’s death because he loved him so
much, could have written of him in such terms. It seems far more likely that the
ideas spring from the time when David was himself suffering at the hands of unjust
authorities.
Injustice Prevails Where There Should Be Justice (Psalms 58:1-2).

16. Having constantly experienced injustice at the hands of those who ruled over Israel,
David gives his assessment of them. Instead of being men who quietly assess things
and come to the right verdict, they make hasty judgments and act violently. It is
certainly a fair assessment of the behaviour of Saul.
Psalms 58:1
‘Do you indeed in silence speak righteousness?
Do you judge uprightly, O you sons of men?’
David reminds men of what they are, they are ‘sons of men (adam)’, not gods or
heavenly beings. And he challenges them to consider as to whether they are wise in
their judgments. Are they of those who listen quietly before coming to a verdict? Do
they judge uprightly? David’s experience is otherwise. He was constantly aware of
how much he had suffered as a consequence of those who would not listen to the
truth.
To ‘speak righteousness’ is in context to pronounce a righteous verdict (it parallels
judging uprightly). To do it ‘in silence’ (elem) is to act thoughtfully without being
swayed by outside voices, or inward prejudices. The wise judge listens and does not
talk too much. ‘He who refrains his lips does wisely’ (Proverbs 10:19). The Book of
Proverbs constantly emphasises the need for the righteous to be silent, and not to
judge things precipitately and speak too quickly (Proverbs 10:19; Proverbs 15:28;
Proverbs 17:27-28; Proverbs 18:13).
ote On ’Elem (‘in silence’).
There is no real justification for emending ’elem (‘in silence’), derived from ’lm - to
be speechless, to eliym (‘mighty ones’), and then emending further to elohiym
(‘gods’). one of the ancient versions would support such a change, and elem makes
good sense as it is. Thus the emendation is unnecessary. It is done by those who are
attracted by emendations, (something which has been all too common in the past), as
a suggested contrast with ‘sons of men’.
End of note.
Psalms 58:2
‘ o, in heart you work wickedness,
You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth (or ‘land’).’
His reply to his own question is ‘ o’. The tendency of men is not to judge uprightly
(Psalms 58:1), not to listen (Psalms 58:4-5), but to ‘work unrighteousness’ (the word
for wickedness constantly contrasts with righteousness), to come to hasty judgments,
to be unrighteous of heart, to dispense (weigh out) their own kind of justice through
violence. It was an assessment that came from his own experience.

17. BI 1-11, "Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?
Man in many aspects
I. The character of depraved men portrayed.
1. Unrighteous in judgment.
2. Wrong in heart.
3. Violent in the treatment of men.
4. Early in apostasy.
5. False in life.
6. Malignant in spirit.
7. Deceitful in heart.
II. The destruction of wicked men invoked.
1. Their entire destruction.
2. Their quick destruction.
III. The spirit of righteous men misrepresented. The psalmist utters a calumny in
representing them as delighting in blood. If righteous Noah had delighted in the
sufferings of his enemies, would he have built an ark? No; righteous men are not men of
vengeance, they are not men of blood.
IV. The verdict of all men anticipated. “So that a man shall say, Verily, there is a reward
for the righteous.”
1. This is a testimony that often seems to be at variance with the providential
government of the human race.
2. This is a testimony that every man sooner or later will be bound by his own
conscience to render. Retribution is inevitable—
(1) From the law of causation. We are to-day the result of our conduct yesterday,
and the cause of our conduct to-morrow; and thus ever must we reap the works
of our own hands.
(2) From the law of conscience. The past works of our hands are not lost.
Memory gathers up the fragments of our life; and conscience stings or smiles,
according to their character.
(3) From the law of righteousness. There is justice in the universe; and justice
will ever punish the wicked and reward the good (Gal_6:7). (Homilist.)
Faith in righteousness
This is a difficult psalm. It is difficult even to read; the most advanced scholarship can
make hardly anything of some of the verses. Besides, the situation which it describes is
very foreign to us; and here and there when it expresses delight in the destruction of
enemies, the sentiment jars on the Christian sense. Yet it is a psalm of high originality,
the poetic imagery being both abundant and uncommon; and it gives such clear
expression to the voice of eternal righteousness that it is worth while to make an effort to

18. extend our sympathies widely enough to comprehend it.
I. The throne of iniquity (Psa_58:1-5). Perhaps the opening words ought to be as they
are given in the margin of the Revised Version, “Is the righteousness ye should speak
dumb?” The psalmist is accusing the administrators of justice of bribery. In the second
verse, he describes them as weighing out violence in the scales in which justice ought to
be weighed. That is, they observed all the solemn forms of justice, but had no regard for
the interests of those who could not pay for their verdicts. In the East this has always
been, and is at the present day, one of the leading features of an evil time. Justice cannot
be procured; the well-doing man is harassed by his wicked neighbours, and has no
redress. The effect of this condition of things on the general community is given in Psa_
58:3-5. Society is poisoned in every department. Lying especially is everywhere rife, as it
will always be where there is a corrupt administration of justice. Insensibility to the
voices of reason and of the spirit is universal. Men are, he says, like the deaf adder,
which stoppeth her ear and will not listen to the voice of the charmer, charm he ever so
wisely. There have been epochs in history like this—when at the top of society there has
been a corrupt court with a profligate aristocracy, and down through all ranks of the
people the poison of falsehood and worldliness has been so diffused that there has been
apparently no audience for any one speaking for God, and no career for any one wishing
to be simple and true. On the small scale, such a situation often exists. The individual
finds himself in a position where those above him are false, reckless and profligate;
success seems to be obtainable only by lying and selfishness; and a tender conscience has
no chance.
II. The throne of God (Psa_58:6-9). What is to be done in such a situation? The natural
thing is to conform, and this is what the majority in all ages do: being at Rome they act
as Rome does. Indeed, without religious conviction it is difficult to see how any one can
act otherwise, where sin is strong and tyrannical, occupying all the high places, speaking
through the organs of public opinion, and exhibiting to the young hundreds of examples.
But it is here the Bible helps us. The writer of this psalm, though surrounded by
prosperous wickedness, saw, over against the throne of iniquity, another throne lofty
and eternal. It was the throne of the living and righteous God. He fixed his eyes on it till
his soul was filled with faith and strength; and then, when he turned his eyes to look
again on the images of the evil world’s power, their glory and stability had disappeared,
and they looked fleeting and paltry. In a series of striking figures of speech he expresses
his disdain of them. They are like toothless lions and fangless serpents (Psa_58:6); like a
torrent which for a moment may seem to be a river, but immediately disappears in the
sand (Psa_58:7); like an abortion; for their plans will come to nothing (Psa_58:8); they
are cooking the flesh of their pleasure in a pot, but, before it is ready for eating, a
whirlwind from the desert will carry the fire away (Psa_58:9).
III. The spectacle of justice (Psa_58:10-11). Not only does the psalmist, inspired by the
vision of the eternal throne, foresee that this must be the issue, but he earnestly pleads
for it; and he does so on two grounds—that the righteous may obtain the reward of their
righteousness, and that all men may see that there is a God that judgeth in the earth. The
triumph of injustice can only be temporary. There is a day coming when all the unjust
judgments both of corrupt tribunals and of unrighteous society will be reversed. Even
now God asserts Himself and vindicates His own; and, when He does so, the instincts of
every honest heart must rise up to welcome Him. (J. Stalker, D. D.)
The perversion of justice

19. Agesilaus, indeed, in other respects was strictly and inflexibly just; but where a man’s
friends are concerned, he thought a rigid regard to justice a mere pretence. There is still
extant a short letter of his to Hydreius the Carian, which is a proof of what we have said:
“If Nicias is innocent, acquit him; if he is not innocent, acquit him on my account;
however, be sure to acquit him.” (Plutarch.)
2 o, in your heart you devise injustice,
and your hands mete out violence on the earth.
BAR ES, "Yea, in heart ye work wickedness - Whatever might be the outward
appearances, whatever pretences they might make to just judgment, yet in fact their
hearts were set on wickedness, and they were conscious of doing wrong.
Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth - It is difficult to attach any
meaning to this language; the translators evidently felt that they could not express the
meaning of the original; and they, therefore, gave what seems to be a literal translation
of the Hebrew. The Septuagint renders it, “In heart you work iniquity in the land; your
hands weave together iniquity.” The Latin Vulgate: “In heart you work iniquity; in the
land your hands prepare injustice.” Luther: “Yea, willingly do you work iniquity in the
land, and go straight through to work evil with your hands.” Professor Alexander: “In the
land, the violence of your hands ye weigh.” Perhaps the true translation of the whole
verse would be, “Yea, in heart ye work iniquity in the land; ye weigh (weigh out) the
violence of your hands;” that is, the deeds of violence or wickedness which your hands
commit. The idea of “weighing” them, or “weighing them out,” is derived from the
administration of justice. In all lands people are accustomed to speak of “weighing out”
justice; to symbolize its administration by scales and balances; and to express the doing
of it as holding an even balance. Compare Job_31:6, note; Dan_5:27, note; Rev_6:5,
note. Thus interpreted, this verse refers, as Psa_58:1, to the act of pronouncing
judgment; and the idea is that instead of pronouncing a just judgment - of holding an
equal balance - they determined in favor of violence - of acts of oppression and wrong to
be committed by their own hands. That which they weighed out, or dispensed, was not a
just sentence, but violence, wrong, injustice, crime.
CLARKE, "Yea, in heart ye work wickedness - With their tongues they had
spoken maliciously, and given evil counsel. In their hearts they meditated nothing but
wickedness. And though in their hands they held the scales of justice, yet in their use of

20. them they were balances of injustice and violence. This is the fact to which the psalmist
alludes, and the figure which he uses is that of justice with her scales or balances, which,
though it might be the emblem of the court, yet it did not prevail in the practice of these
magistrates and counsellors.
GILL, "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 as well as by the tongue and hand, as follows. This phrase also
denotes their sinning; not with precipitancy, and through surprise; but with
premeditation and deliberation; and their doing it heartily, with good will, and with
allowance, and their continuance and constant persisting in it;
ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth; they were guilty of acts of
violence and oppression, which, of all men, judges should not be guilty of; whose
business it is to plead the cause of the injured and oppressed, to right their wrongs, and
to protect and defend them: these they pretended to weigh in the balance of justice and
equity, and committed them under a show of righteousness; they decreed unrighteous
decrees, and framed mischief by a law; and this they did openly, and everywhere,
throughout the whole land.
JAMISO , "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.
CALVI , "2.Yea, rather, in heart ye plot wickedness. In the former verse he
complained of the gross shamelessness manifested in their conduct. ow he charges
them both with entertaining wickedness in their thoughts, and practising it with
their hands. I have accordingly translated the Hebrew article ‫,אף‬ aph, yea, rather —
it being evident that David proceeds, after first repelling the calumnies of his
enemies, to the further step of challenging them with the sins which they had
themselves committed. The second clause of the verse may be rendered in two
different ways, ye weigh violence with your hands, or, your hands weigh violence;
and as the meaning is the same, it is immaterial which the reader may adopt. Some
think that he uses the figurative expression, to weigh, in allusion to the pretense of
equity under which he was persecuted, as if he were a disturber of the peace, and
chargeable with treason and contumacy towards the king. In all probability, his
enemies glossed over their oppression with plausible pretences, such as hypocrites
are never slow to discover. But the Hebrew word ‫,פלס‬ phalas, admits of a wider
signification, to frame or set in order; and nothing more may be meant than that
they put into shape the sins which they had first conceived in their thoughts. It is
added, upon the earth, to denote the unbridled license of their wickedness, which
was done openly, and not in places where concealment might have been practiced.

21. SPURGEO , "Ver. 2. Yea, in heart ye work wickedness. Down deep in your very
souls ye hold a rehearsal of the injustice ye intend to practise, and when your
opportunity arrives, ye wreak vengeance with a gusto; your hearts are in your
wicked work, and your hands are therefore ready enough. Those very men who sat
as judges, and pretended to so much indignation at the faults imputed to their
victim, were in their hearts perpetrating all manner of evil.
Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. They were deliberate sinners, cold,
calculating villains. As righteous judges ponder the law, balance the evidence, and
weigh the case, so the malicious dispense injustice with malice aforethought in cold
blood. ote in this verse that the men described sinned with heart and hand;
privately in their heart, publicly in the earth; they worked and they weighed--they
were active, and yet deliberate. See what a generation saints have to deal with! Such
were the foes of our Lord, a generation of vipers, an evil and adulterous generation;
they sought to kill him because he was righteousness itself, yet they masked their
hatred to his goodness by charging him with sin.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS
Ver. 2. In heart ye work wickedness, etc. The psalmist doth not say, they had
wickedness in their heart, but that they did work it there: the heart is a shop within,
an underground shop; there they did closely contrive, forge, and hammer out their
wicked purposes, and fit them into actions; yea, they weighed the violence of their
hands in the earth. That's an allusion to merchants, who buy and sell by weight;
they weigh their commodity to an ounce; they do not give it out in gross, but by
exact weight. This saith the psalmist, they weigh the violence of their hands; they do
not oppress grossly, but with a kind of exactness and skill, they sit down and
consider what and how much violence they may use in such a case, or how much
such a person may endure, or such a season may bear. They are wiser than to do all
at once, or all to one, lest they spoil all. They weigh what they do, though what they
do be so bad that it will hold no weight when God comes to weigh it. or do they
arrive at this skill presently, but after they have, as it were, served an
apprenticeship at it; and they bind themselves to the trade very early; for as it
follows at the third verse of the Psalm, The wicked are estranged from the womb:
they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies, that is, they are estranged both
by nature and by early practice; they lose no time, they go to it young, even "as soon
as they are born, "as soon as they are fit for any use, or to do any thing, they are
using and setting themselves to do wickedly. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 2. The word twlwe wickedness properly signifies the inclinations of scales,
when the scale weighs down to one side; then it is transferred to respect of persons,
to injustice and iniquity, especially in public tribunals and decisions, as in Psalms
82:2, How long will ye judge lwe by an unjust inclination of the scales? Hermann
Venema.
Ver. 2. The principles of the wicked are even worse than their practices:
premeditated violence is doubly guilty. George Rogers.
ELLICOTT, "(2) In heart . . . in the earth (or, better, in the land).—These in the
text are in antithesis. The mischief conceived in the heart is weighed out, instead of
justice, by these unjust magistrates. The balance of justice is thus turned into a
means of wrong-doing. But, perhaps, we should rather arrange as follows:

22. ay! with your heart ye work wickedness in the land,
With your hands you weigh out violence.
TRAPP, "Psalms 58:2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of
your hands in the earth.
Ver. 2. Yea, in heart ye work wickedness] These the devil worketh it as in a forge; ye
are always plotting and ploughing mischief, and that not so much for fear of Saul,
or to please him, as out of the naughtiness of your own hearts; and all this you know
in your consciences to be true. Kimchi saith, that the word Aph, or yea, importeth,
that their hearts were made for a better purpose; and therefore their sin was the
greater. Corruptio optimi pessima.
Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth] i.e. Your bribes, saith Kimchi;
these we weigh or poise, quasi essent recta, as if there were no hurt in them: so
Demosthenes weighed Harpalus’s goblet, to the great danger of his country, and his
own indelible infamy. Manus vestrae concinnant iniquitatem (Vul.). The Arabic
rendereth it, Manus vestrae in tenebris immersae sunt, your hands are drowned in
darkness; you seem to do all according to law and justice (pictured with a pair of
balances in her hand), when, indeed, you weigh out wrong for right, and do things
κατα προσκλισιν, by partiality, 1 Timothy 5:21, by tilting the balance on the one
side, Trutina iustior. Prov. ζυγον µη παραBαινειν (Pythag. Symb.).
WHEDO , "2. Yea, in heart—Here is the seat of all iniquity. They sinned, not from
ignorance, but from disposition and intention.
Ye weigh—Ironically spoken. They professed to use equity and truth as weights in
the scale of justice, but instead, they weighed violence. On “weigh” see note on
Psalms 78:50. The “violence of” their hands, is “violence” which they themselves
have wrought out by using, in their administration, tricks and devices instead of the
forms of justice.
In the earth—In the land; that is, publicly in all the kingdom. What the “heart”
secretly devised, the hands fabricated into plans and written decrees, which become
public law.
3 Even from birth the wicked go astray;
from the womb they are wayward, spreading

23. lies.
BAR ES, "The wicked are estranged from the womb - The allusion here
undoubtedly is to the persons principally referred to in the psalm - the enemies of David.
But their conduct toward him suggests a more general reflection in regard to “all” the
wicked as having the same characteristics. The psalmist, therefore, instead of confining
his remarks to them, makes his observations general, on the principle that all wicked
men have essentially the same character, and especially in respect to the thing here
affirmed, that they go astray early; that they are apostate and alienated from God from
their very birth. The words, “the wicked,” here do not necessarily refer to the whole
human family (though what is thus affirmed is true of all the human race), but to people
who in their lives develop a wicked character; and the affirmation in regard to them is
that they go astray early in life - from their very infancy.
Strictly speaking, therefore, it cannot be shown that the psalmist in this declaration
had reference to the whole human race, or that he meant to make a universal declaration
in regard to man as being early estranged or alienated from God; and the passage,
therefore, cannot directly, and with exact propriety, be adduced to prove the doctrine
that “original sin” pertains to all the race - whatever may be true on that point. If,
however, it is demonstrated from “other” passages, and from facts, that all men “are”
“wicked” or depraved, then the assertion here becomes a proof that this is from the
womb - from their very birth - that they begin life with a propensity to evil - and that all
their subsequent acts are but developments of the depravity or corruption with which
they are born. It is only, therefore, after it is proved that people “are” depraved or
“wicked,” that this passage can be cited in favor of the doctrine of original sin.
The word rendered are “estranged” - ‫זרוּ‬ zorû - means properly, “to go off, to turn
aside,” or “away, to depart;” and then it comes to mean “to be strange,” or “a stranger.”
The proper idea in the word is that one is a stranger, or a foreigner, and the word would
be properly applied to one of another tribe or nation, like the Latin “hostis,” and the
Greek ξείνος xeinos. Exo_30:33; Isa_1:7; Isa_25:2; Isa_29:5; Psa_44:20. The meaning
of the term as thus explained is, that, from earliest childhood, they are “as if” they
belonged to another people than the people of God; they manifest another spirit; they
are governed by other principles than those which pertain to the righteous. Compare
Eph_2:19. Their first indications of character are not those of the children of God, but
are “alien, strange, hostile” to him. The phrase “from the womb,” refers, undoubtedly, to
their birth; and the idea is, that as soon as they begin to act they act wrong; they show
that they are strangers to God. Strictly speaking, this passage does not affirm anything
directly of what exists in the heart “before” people begin to act, for it is by their
“speaking lies” that they show their estrangement; yet it is proper to “infer” that where
this is universal, there “is” something lying back of this which makes it certain that they
“will” act thus - just as when a tree always bears the same kind of fruit, we infer that
there is something “in” the tree, back of the actual “bearing” of the fruit, which makes it
certain that it “will” bear such fruit and no other. This “something” in the heart of a child
is what is commonly meant by “original sin.”

24. They go astray - The Hebrew word used here means to go astray, to wander, to err.
It is used in reference to drunken persons who reel, Isa_28:7; and to the soul, as erring
or wandering from the paths of truth and piety, Eze_48:11; Psa_95:10; Psa_119:110;
Pro_21:16. The “manner” in which the persons here referred to did this, is indicated here
by their “speaking lies.”
As soon as they be born - Margin, as in Hebrew, “from the belly.” The meaning is,
not that they speak lies “as soon as” they are born, which could not be literally true, but
that this is the “first act.” The first thing “done” is not an act of holiness, but an act of sin
- showing what is in the heart.
Speaking lies - They are false in their statements; false in their promises; false in
their general character. This is one of the forms of sin, indicating original depravity; and
it is undoubtedly selected here because this was particularly manifested by the enemies
of David. They were false, perfidious, and could not be trusted. If it be proved, therefore,
that all people are wicked, then “this” passage becomes a proper and an important text
to demonstrate that this wickedness is not the result of temptation or example, but that
it is the expression of the depravity of the heart by nature; that the tendency of man by
nature is not to goodness, but to sin; that the first developments of character are sinful;
that there is something lying of sinful acts in people which makes it certain that they will
act as they do; and that this always manifests itself in the first acts which they perform.
CLARKE, "The wicked are estranged from the womb - “This,” says Dr.
Kennicott, “and the next two verses, I take to be the answer of Jehovah to the question in
the two first verses, as the Psa_58:6, Psa_58:7, and Psa_58:8, are the answer of the
psalmist, and the remainder contains the decree of Jehovah.” He calls these wicked men,
men who had been always wicked, originally and naturally bad, and brought up in
falsehood, flattery, and lying. The part they acted now was quite in character.
GILL, "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 life which is agreeable to him, and he requires; and from the knowledge and
fear of him, and love to him; and they desire not the knowledge of him nor his ways; they
are far from his law, and averse to it; and still more so to the Gospel of Christ; the
doctrines of which, as well as the great things written in the law, are strange things to
them; and they are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, estranged from the people
of God, know nothing of them, neither of their joys, nor of their sorrows;
they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies; they are wicked from their
infancy, from their youth upward; and sin, which is meant by "going astray", as soon as
they are capable of it, and which is very early. Sin soon appears in the temper and
actions of then; they go out of God's way, and turn everyone to their own way, and walk
in the broad road which leads to destruction: and particularly they are very early guilty
of lying; as soon as they can speak, and before they can speak plain, they lisp out lies,
which they learn from their father the devil, who is the father of lies; and so they
continue all their days strangers to divine things, going astray from God, the God of

25. truth, continually doing abominations and speaking lies; which continuance in these
things makes the difference between reprobate men and God's elect; for though the
latter are the same by nature as the former, yet their natures are restrained, before
conversion, from going into all the sins they are inclined to; and if not, yet at conversion
a stop is put to their progress in iniquity.
HE RY, " The corruption of their nature. This was the root of bitterness from which
that gall and wormwood sprang (Psa_58:3): The wicked, who in heart work wickedness,
are estranged from the womb, estranged from God and all good, alienated from the
divine life, and its principles, powers, and pleasures, Eph_4:18. A sinful state is a state of
estrangement from that acquaintance with God and service of him which we were made
for. Let none wonder that these wicked men dare do such things, for wickedness is bred
in the bone with them; they brought it into the world with them; they have in their
natures a strong inclination to it; they learned it from their wicked parents, and have
been trained up in it by a bad education. They are called, and not miscalled,
transgressors from the womb; one can therefore expect no other than that they will deal
very treacherously; see Isa_48:8. They go astray from God and their duty as soon as
they are born, (that is, as soon as possibly they can); the foolishness that is bound up in
their hearts appears with the first operations of reason; as the wheat springs up, the
tares spring up with it. Three instances are here given of the corruption of nature: - 1.
Falsehood. They soon learn to speak lies, and bend their tongues, like their bows, for
that purpose, Jer_9:3. How soon will little children tell a lie to excuse a fault, or in their
own commendation! No sooner can they speak than they speak to God's dishonour;
tongue-sins are some of the first of our actual transgressions. 2. Malice. Their poison
(that is, their ill-will, and the spite they bore to goodness and all good men, particularly
to David) was like the poison of a serpent, innate, venomous, and very mischievous, and
that which they can never be cured of. We pity a dog that is poisoned by accident, but
hate a serpent that is poisonous by nature. Such as the cursed enmity in this serpent's
brood against the Lord and his anointed. 3. Untractableness. They are malicious, and
nothing will work upon them, no reason, no kindness, to mollify them, and bring them
to a better temper. They are like the deaf adder that stops her ear, Psa_58:4, Psa_58:5.
The psalmist, having compared these wicked men, whom he here complains of, to
serpents, for their poisonous malice, takes occasion thence, upon another account, to
compare them to the deaf adder or viper, concerning which there was then this vulgar
tradition, that whereas, by music or some other art, they had a way of charming
serpents, so as either to destroy them or at least disable them to do mischief, this deaf
adder would lay one ear to the ground and stop the other with her tail, so that she could
not hear the voice of the enchantment, and so defeated the intention of it and secured
herself. The using of this comparison neither verifies the story, nor, if it were true,
justifies the use of this enchantment; for it is only an allusion to the report of such a
thing, to illustrate the obstinacy of sinners in a sinful way. God's design, in his word and
providence, is to cure serpents of their malignity; to this end how wise, how powerful,
how well-chosen are the charms! How forcible the right words! But all in vain with most
men; and what is the reason? It is because they will not hearken. None so deaf as those
that will not hear. We have piped unto men, and they have not danced; how should
they, when they have stopped their ears?
JAMISO , "describe the wicked generally, who sin naturally, easily, malignantly,

26. and stubbornly.
K&D 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 ‫ּור‬‫ז‬ in this instance in a neuter, not
an active sense, plural ‫ּרוּ‬‫ז‬ lar, like ‫ּשׁוּ‬ , ‫ּבוּ‬‫ט‬. Bakius recognises a retrospective reference to
this passage in Isa_48:8. In such passages Scripture bears witness to the fact, which is
borne out by experience, that there are men in whom evil from childhood onwards has a
truly diabolical character, i.e., a selfish character altogether incapable of love. For
although hereditary sinfulness and hereditary sin (guilt) are common to all men, yet the
former takes the most manifold combinations and forms; and, in fact, the inheriting of
sin and the complex influence of the power of evil and of the power of grace on the
propagation of the human race require that it should be so. The Gospel of John more
particularly teaches such a dualism of the natures of men. ‫ּו‬‫מ‬ ָ‫ת־ל‬ ַ‫מ‬ ֲ‫ח‬ (with Rebia, as in
Joh_18:18) is not the subject: the poison belonging to them, etc., but a clause by itself:
poison is to them, they have poison; the construct state here, as in Lam_2:18; Eze_1:27,
does not express a relation of actual union, but only a close connection. ‫ם‬ ֵ ְ‫א‬ַ‫י‬ (with the
orthophonic Dagesh which gives prominence to the Teth as the commencement of a
syllable) is an optative future form, which is also employed as an indicative in the poetic
style, e.g., Psa_18:11. The subject of this attributive clause, continuing the adjective, is
the deaf adder, such an one, viz., as makes itself deaf; and in this respect (as in their evil
serpent nature) it is a figure of the self-hardening evil-doer. Then with ‫ר‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫א‬ begins the
more minute description of this adder. There is a difference even among serpents. They
belong to the worst among them that are inaccessible to any kind of human influence. All
the arts of sorcery are lost upon them. ‫ים‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫ֽח‬ ַ‫ל‬ ְ‫מ‬ are the whisperers of magic formulae (cf.
Arabic naffathât, adjurations), and ‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ ָ‫ב‬ ֲ‫ח‬ ‫ר‬ ֵ‫ּוב‬‫ח‬ is one who works binding by spells,
exorcism, and tying fast by magic knots (cf. ‫ר‬ ַ‫ב‬ ָ‫,ח‬ to bind = to bewitch, cf. Arab. ‛qqd, ‛nn,
Persic bend = κατάδεσµος, vid., Isaiah, i. 118, ii. 242). The most inventive affection and
the most untiring patience cannot change their mind. Nothing therefore remains to
David but to hope for their removal, and to pray for it.
CALVI , "3.They are estranged, being wicked from the womb. He adduces, in
aggravation of their character, the circumstance, that they were not sinners of
recent date, but persons born to commit sin. We see some men, otherwise not so
depraved in disposition, who are drawn into evil courses through levity of mind, or
bad example, or the solicitation of appetite, or other occasions of a similar kind; but
David accuses his enemies of being leavened with wickedness from the womb,
alleging that their treachery and cruelty were born with them. We all come into the
world stained with sin, possessed, as Adam’s posterity, of a nature essentially
depraved, and incapable, in ourselves, of aiming at anything which is good; but
there is a secret restraint upon most men which prevents them from proceeding all
lengths in iniquity. The stain of original sin cleaves to the whole humanity without

27. exception; but experience proves that some are characterised by modesty and
decency of outward deportment; that others are wicked, yet, at the same time,
within bounds of moderation; while a third class are so depraved in disposition as to
be intolerable members of society. ow, it is this excessive wickedness — too
marked to escape detestation even amidst the general corruption of mankind —
which David ascribes to his enemies. He stigmatises them as monsters of iniquity.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb. It is small wonder
that some men persecute the righteous seed of the woman, since all of them are of
the serpent's brood, and enmity is set between them. o sooner born than alienated
from God--what a condition to be found in! Do we so early leave the right track? Do
we at the same moment begin to be men and commence to be sinners?
They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Every observer may see how
very soon infants act lies. Before they can speak they practise little deceptive arts.
This is especially the case in those who grow up to be adept in slander, they begin
their evil trade early, and there is no marvel that they become adept in it. He who
starts early in the morning will go far before night. To be untruthful is one of the
surest proofs of a fallen state, and since falsehood is universal, so also is human
depravity.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS
Ver. 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb, etc. How early men do sin! How
late they do repent! As soon as they are born "they go astray, "but if left to
themselves they will not return till they die; they will never return. Children can
neither go nor speak as soon as born, but as soon as born they can "go astray" and
"speak lies; "that is, their first speaking is lying, and their first going is straying;
yea, when they cannot go naturally, they can go astray morally or metaphorically:
the first step they are able to take is a step out of the way. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 3. They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Of all sins, no sin can
call Satan father like to lying. All the corruption that is in us came from Satan, but
yet this sin of forging and lying is from the devil more than any; tastes of the devil
more than any. Hence every man is a liar (Romans 3:4), and so every man is every
sinner else; but in a special manner every man is a liar; for that the very first
depravation of our nature came in by lying, and our nature doth taste much still of
this old block to be given to lying, the devil also breathing into us a strong breath to
stir us up to lying. Hence no sooner do we speak but we lie. As we are in body,
subject to all diseases, but yet, some to one sickness rather than to another: so in the
soul, all are apt enough to all sin, and some rather to one vice than to another; but
all are much inclined to lying. A liar then is as like the devil as ever he can look: as
unlike to God as ever he can be. Richard Capel, 1586-1656, in "Tentations, their
ature, Danger, Cure."
Ver. 3. The figure of the wicked going astray as soon as they are born, seems to be
taken from the disposition and power of a young serpent soon after its birth. The
youngest serpent can convey poison to anything which it bites; and the suffering in
all cases is great, though the bite is seldom fatal. Place a stick near the reptile whose
age does not amount to many days, and he will immediately snap at it. The offspring
of the tiger and of the alligator are equally fierce in their earliest habits. Joseph
Roberts, in "Oriental Illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures, "1844.

28. COKE, "Psalms 58:3. The wicked are estranged from the womb— This is a strong
hyperbole, a figure often used, as it is here, with great elegance by the finest writers;
when, to be more expressive, they speak in such terms as apparently exceed the
strict matter of fact. St. John does the same thing, when he says, If all our Saviour's
miracles and actions were to be recorded, The world itself would not contain the
books which should be written: i.e. The account of them would be exceedingly long
and large. But in one sense, we may add, all men are estranged from God from the
womb: all are fallen.
TRAPP, "Psalms 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as
soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Ver. 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb] q.d. These enemies of mine are
old sinners; hardened and habituated in wickedness from the very womb; it hath
also grown up with them, and quite turned away their hearts from God and
goodness, whereunto they stand utterly across, and have an innate antipathy; they
are not only averse thereto, but adverse also; yea, to their sinews of iron they have
added brows of brass, Isaiah 48:4. Sinful, indeed, we are all by nature, and a birth
blot we bring into the world with us, making us strangers to and strayers from God.
But some God sanctifieth even from the womb, as he did Jeremiah; and some by the
light of nature, not altogether extinct, and by God’s restraining grace, are reined in
from notorious outrage in sin. Whereas others, cast off by God, and suffered to walk
after their own heart’s lusts, in pesus indies proficiunt, wax every day worse and
worse, as the apostle speaketh, till their iniquity be full, and so wrath come upon
them to the utmost. But as young nettles sting straight, and young crab fish go
backward, and young urchins are rough; so naughty nature soon appeareth in little
ones. Valezatha, the youngest of Haman’s sons, is by the Hebrews said to be the
most malicious; and hath therefore one letter ‫ו‬ in his name bigger than the rest.
{Hebrew Text ote}
They go astray as soon as they be born] Heb. from the belly; Partus sequitur
ventrem, no sooner could they do anything but they were doing evil, lisping out lies
and slanders very early.
WHEDO , "3. Estranged from the womb—Alienated from God and his
righteousness from birth. The same doctrine of original or birth sinfulness is taught
in the next member. Sin thus springs from the depth of our nature, and is the fruit
of the unregenerate heart. See on Psalms 51:5; Isaiah 48:8.Speaking lies—Falsehood
is here put down as the characteristic of all sin, as truth is for the genus of piety,
Psalms 51:6
COFFMA , "THE TYRA TS DESCRIBED
"The wicked are estranged from the womb:

29. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent:
They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear,
Which hearkeneth not to the voice of charmers,
Charming never so wisely."
"They are estranged from the womb" (Psalms 58:3). Those who see this verse as
teaching total hereditary depravity find what is absolutely not in it. "The words
`total,' `hereditary,' and `depravity' are not in the Bible, not even in one in a place,
much less all three together"![7]
"They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies" (Psalms 58:3). "This, of
course, is literally impossible; and those who use this verse to argue for infant
depravity surely miss the author's poetic point."[8]
What is meant here is simply that the total lives of the wicked are evil, their very
earliest activities having given evidence of it. "The most inventive affection and the
most untiring patience cannot change the minds of such wicked men. othing
remains, therefore, for David, except to pray for their removal."[9]
Leupold pointed out that there is a close connection between Psalms 58:2 and
Psalms 58:3. In Psalms 58:2, he addressed them as men open to reason; but in
Psalms 58:3, having recognized their stubborn perversity in evil, he refrains from
further reasoning with them, and begins to speak "Of them, rather than to
them."[10]
"They are like the deaf adder" (Psalms 58:4). The metaphor here is that of a
poisonous serpent which cannot be charmed. "It pictures an evil person so intent
upon wickedness that he cannot be dissuaded."[11]
The whole point of Psalms 58:3-5 is that the wicked men addressed are already
hardened in sin and that the hope of changing them is nil. It is an exercise in futility
to pray for the inveterate enemies of God who are intent only upon destruction.
PETT, "Verses 3-5
David’s Verdict On The Unrighteous (Psalms 58:3-5).
David’s verdict on the unrighteous is that they are like this from birth. That there is
within man that which causes them to go astray, a tendency to sin. They are like
snakes who poison men, and never listen.
Psalms 58:3

30. ‘The wicked are estranged from the womb,
They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.’
The unrighteous are like it even from birth. They are estranged from righteousness
and justice, and therefore from God, from the womb. They are ‘alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their
hearts’ (Ephesians 4:18). As soon as they are born they begin to use deceit to get
their own way. Babes in arms soon discover how they can get attention for
themselves by pretending that there is something wrong. And as they grow older
such deceit becomes natural to them. It arises from what men are.
Psalms 58:4-5
‘Their poison is like the poison of a serpent,
They are like the deaf adder which stops her ear,
Which does not listen to the voice of charmers,
Charming never so wisely.’
As a consequence when they grow up they are like snakes who are filled with poison
with which they harm others. And what is worse they are like the deadly poisonous
deaf adders who will not listen to any attempt to make them hear. They go blindly
on in their own way, without a thought of what they are doing. o matter how
wisely God and good men speak to them, they are deaf to all attempts to reach them.
Snake charming was, and is, regularly practised in the east. By this means even
snakes could be charmed into harmlessness. But not the deaf adder. It did not
respond to any attempt to charm it, however subtle.
In the same ways David had made every effort to show Saul how wrong he was
about him. But Saul even refused to listen to the pleas of his own son Jonathan.
Whatever was said his ears were closed. All he could do was strike out with deadly
poison.
4 Their venom is like the venom of a snake,
like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,

31. BAR ES, "Their poison - Their malignity; their bad spirit; that which they utter or
throw out of their mouth. The reference here is to what they speak or utter Psa_58:3,
and the idea is, that it is penetrating and deadly.
Like the poison of a serpent - Margin, as in Hebrew, “according to the likeness.”
In this expression no particular class of serpents is referred to except those which are
“poisonous.”
Like the deaf adder - Margin, “asp.” The word may refer either to the viper, the asp,
or the adder. See the notes at Isa_11:8. The “particular” idea here is, that the serpent
referred to was as it were “deaf;” it could not be tamed or charmed; it seemed to stop its
own ears, so that there was no means of rendering it a safe thing to approach it. The
supposition is that there “were” serpents which, though deadly in their poison, “might”
be charmed or tamed, but that “this” species of serpent could “not.” The sense, as
applied to the wicked, is, that there was no way of overcoming their evil propensities - of
preventing them from giving utterance to words that were like poison, or from doing
mischief to all with whom they came in contact. They were malignant, and there was no
power of checking their malignity. Their poison was deadly, and there was no possibility
of restraining them from doing evil.
That stoppeth her ear - Which “seems” to stop her ear; which refuses to hear the
words and incantations by which other serpents are subdued and tamed. Others,
however, refer this to the man himself, meaning, “like the deaf adder he stops his ear;”
that is, he voluntarily makes himself like the adder that does not hear, and that will not
be tamed. The former interpretation, however, is to be preferred.
CLARKE, "Their poison is like the poison of a serpent - When they bite, they
convey poison into the wound, as the serpent does. They not only injure you by outward
acts, but by their malevolence they poison your reputation. They do you as much evil as
they can, and propagate the worst reports that others may have you in abhorrence, treat
you as a bad and dangerous man; and thus, as the poison from the bite of the serpent is
conveyed into the whole mass of blood, and circulates with it through all the system,
carrying death every where; so they injurious speeches and vile insinuations circulate
through society, and poison and blast your reputation in every place. Such is the
slanderer, and such his influence in society. From such no reputation is safe; with such
no character is sacred; and against such there is no defense. God alone can shield the
innocent from the envenomed tongue and lying lips of such inward monsters in the
shape of men.
Like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear - It is a fact that cannot be disputed
with any show of reason, that in ancient times there were persons that charmed, lulled to
inactivity, or professed to charm, serpents, so as to prevent them from biting. See Ecc_
10:11; Jer_8:17. The prince of Roman poets states the fact, Virg. Ecl. viii., ver. 71.
Frigidus in prati cantando rumpitur anguis.
“In the meadows the cold snake is burst by incantation.”
The same author, Aen. vii., ver. 750, gives us the following account of the skill of
Umbro, a priest of the Marrubians: -
Quin et Marru bia venit de gente sacerdos,
Fronde super galeam, et felici comptus oliva,

32. Archippi regis missu, fortissimus Umbro;
Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris,
Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat,
Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat.
“Umbro, the brave Marubian priest, was there,
Sent by the Marsian monarch to the war.
The smiling olive with her verdant boughs
Shades his bright helmet, and adorns his brows.
His charms in peace the furious serpent keep,
And lull the envenomed viper’s race to sleep:
His healing hand allayed the raging pain;
And at his touch the poisons fled again.”
Pitt.
There is a particular sect of the Hindoos who profess to bring serpents into subjection,
and deprive them of their poison, by incantation. See at the end of this Psalm.
GILL, "Their poison is like the poison of a serpent,.... Either their "wrath" and
fury, as the word (x) may be rendered, against God, his people, and even one another, is
like that of a serpent when irritated and provoked; or their mischievous and devouring
words are like the poison of asps under their lips, Rom_3:13; or the malignity of sin in
them is here meant, which, like the poison of a serpent, is latent, hid, and lurking in
them; is very infectious to all the powers and faculties of the soul, and members of the
body; and is deadly and incurable, without the grace of God and blood of Christ;
they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; the adder is a kind of serpent,
in Hebrew called "pethen"; hence the serpent "Python". This is not, deaf naturally,
otherwise it would have no need to stop its ear, but of choice; and naturalists (y)
observe, that it is quicker of hearing than of sight. Jarchi indeed says, when it grows old
it becomes deaf in one of its ears, and it stops its other ear with dust, that it may not hear
the voice of the charmer; though others say (z) it stops one ear with its tail, and lays the
other to the ground; but these seem fabulous. David speaks of it figuratively, that it acts
as if it was deaf, regarding no enchantments, but bites notwithstanding; these having no
influence on it, which, if they had any, could not be hindered by its deafness; and he
compares wicked men to it, who are wilfully deaf to all good counsel and advice given
them
JAMISO , "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.
SBC, "Deaf adders may seem very stupid creatures to be teaching lessons to human
beings, but they are certainly able to do it. There is quite a variety of deaf adders in the
world.
I. Lazy schoolboys and girls are like deaf adders.

33. II. Hard-headed people are like deaf adders.
III. Hard-hearted people are like deaf adders.
IV. Ungodly people are like deaf adders.
J. N. Norton, The King’s Ferry Boat, p. 126.
Reference: Psalm 58—J. Hammond, Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 212.
CALVI , "4.Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf
adder (348) He prosecutes his description; and, though he might have insisted on the
fierceness which characterised their opposition, he charges them more particularly,
here as elsewhere, with the malicious virulence of their disposition. Some read, their
fury; (349) but this does not suit the figure, by which they are here compared to
serpents. o objection can be drawn to the translation we have adopted from the
etymology of the word, which is derived from heat. It is well known, that while some
poisons kill by cold, others consume the vital parts by a burning heat. David then
asserts of his enemies, in this passage, that they were as full of deadly malice as
serpents are full of poison. The more emphatically to express their consummate
subtlety, he compares them to deaf serpents, which shut their ears against the voice
of the charmer — not the common kind of serpents, but such as are famed for their
cunning, and are upon their guard against every artifice of that description. But is
there such a thing, it may be asked, as enchantment? If there were not, it might
seem absurd and childish to draw a comparison from it, unless we suppose David to
speak in mere accommodation to mistaken, though generally received opinion. (350)
He would certainly seem, however, to insinuate that serpents can be fascinated by
enchantment; and I can see no harm in granting it. The Marsi in Italy were believed
by the ancients to excel in the art. Had there been no enchantments practiced, where
was the necessity of their being forbidden and condemned under the Law?
(Deuteronomy 18:11.) I do not mean to say that there is an actual method or art by
which fascination can be effected. It was doubtless done by a mere sleight of Satan,
(351) whom God has suffered to practice his delusions upon unbelieving and
ignorant men, although he prevents him from deceiving those who have been
enlightened by his word and Spirit. But we may avoid all occasion for such curious
inquiry, by adopting the view already referred to, that David here borrows his
comparison from a popular and prevailing error, and is to be merely supposed as
saying, that no kind of serpent was imbued with greater craft than his enemies, not
even the species (if such there were) which guards itself against enchantment.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 4. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. Is man also a
poisonous reptile? Yes, and his venom is even as that of a serpent. The viper has but
death for the body in his fangs; but unregenerate man carries poison under his
tongue, destructive to the nobler nature.
They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear. While speaking of serpents the
psalmist remembers that many of them have been conquered by the charmer's art,
but men such as he had to deal with no art could tame or restrain; therefore, he
likens them to a serpent less susceptible than others to the charmer's music, and