Chapter Overview
Summary
Psalm 58 (MT) / Psalm 57 (LXX) is a Davidic miktam — an imprecatory-psalm directed at unjust rulers and judges who deal out violence rather than justice. The psalm's opening address 'you gods' (elim) or 'mighty ones' is an address either to human-rulers or (in a divine-council cosmology) to angelic-overseers of the nations, as in Psalm 82. The vivid anti-tyrant curses (teeth broken, waters flowing away, snail dissolving) make this one of the Psalter's most difficult-for-modern-sensibilities psalms, yet essential for any theology that takes injustice seriously.
Notable Variants
58:1 'gods' (elim) or 'mighty ones' as address to unjust-rulers or divine-council (cf. Ps 82); 58:4 'poison of a serpent' → Romans 3:13 citation-catena family; the snail-dissolving curse imagery as Semitic-imprecatory poetry.
Structural Notes
MT Ps 58 = LXX Ps 57. 12 verses (MT/LXX), 11 verses (English).
For the director of music. "Do Not Destroy." A miktam of David.
Superscription tracks MT.
Do you rulers truly speak what is right? Do you judge the children of humanity with equity?
'Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?' tracks MT. ADDRESS TO 'GODS' (elim / hyioi anthrōpōn in LXX). The Hebrew 'elim can mean 'gods/mighty ones.' The LXX softens to 'sons of men' — removing the polytheistic address. Psalm 82 maintains the divine-council-of-gods address; here the LXX interprets as human-rulers-who-function-as-gods.
No — in your hearts you devise injustice; on earth your hands weigh out violence.
'No, in your hearts you devise wrongs' tracks MT.
The wicked go astray from the womb; they wander off from birth, speaking lies.
'The wicked are estranged from the womb' tracks MT. Innate-estrangement theology anticipating the original-sin anthropology of Ps 51:5.
Their venom is like the venom of a serpent, like a deaf cobra that stops its ear,
'They have venom like the venom of a serpent' tracks MT. SERPENT-VENOM vocabulary — ios as in Romans 3:13 ('the venom of asps is under their lips,' ios aspidōn) which is part of Paul's catena (specifically from Ps 140:3 primarily, but the serpent-venom-under-lips vocabulary family includes this verse).
that will not hear the voice of charmers, no matter how skillful the spellbinder.
'Like the deaf adder that stops its ear, so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter' tracks MT. The deaf-adder image — the snake that covers its ear against the charmer's-music — as metaphor for willful-non-hearing.
God, smash their teeth in their mouths! Tear out the fangs of the young lions, LORD!
'O God, break the teeth in their mouths' tracks MT. Teeth-breaking imprecation — violent-animals disarmed by broken-teeth.
Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows be blunted.
'Let them vanish like water that runs away' tracks MT.
Like a snail that dissolves as it goes, like a woman's stillborn child that never sees the sun.
'Like the snail that dissolves into slime' tracks MT. SNAIL-DISSOLVING imagery — Semitic-natural observation of snail-slime-trails interpreted as 'dissolving.' The poetic-violence of the image.
Before your pots feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze — he will sweep them away!
'Like the untimely birth that never sees the sun' tracks MT. Stillborn-never-seeing-sun — bleakest of the imprecatory-images.
The righteous will rejoice when they see vindication; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
'Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!' tracks MT. Proverbial-thorns-fire imagery — the speed of thorn-kindling.
And people will say, "Yes — there is fruit for the righteous! Yes — there is a God who judges on earth!"
'The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance' tracks MT.
'Mankind will say: Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth' tracks MT. The closing axiom — DIVINE-JUDGMENT IS A FACT. Against practical-atheism of the fool (Ps 14, 53), the imprecatory-psalm asserts: God DOES judge, reward IS real. The closing-witness of the just-order is the psalm's theological-purpose.