A psalm that indicts corrupt rulers who fail to administer justice, compares them to venomous snakes deaf to the charmer, and calls on God to shatter their power through a series of vivid destruction-images. The psalm concludes with the righteous celebrating when divine justice is vindicated.
This psalm is among the most violent in the Psalter, and that violence is not random — it is a cry against systemic injustice from those who have no access to earthly courts of appeal. The six destruction-images in verses 7-10 (broken teeth, vanishing water, blunted arrows, dissolving snails, stillborn children, thorns swept by storm) are not sadistic fantasy but the accumulated fury of people whose only recourse is God. The deaf-adder image (vv. 5-6) is psychologically precise: the corrupt judge is not ignorant of justice — he has stopped his ears against it, like a snake that deliberately refuses to hear the charmer. The corruption is willful, not accidental.
The opening word elem (v. 2) is notoriously difficult. It could mean 'silence' (are you truly silent when justice is needed?), 'gods' (elim, addressing divine beings of Psalm 82), or 'rulers' (a metonymic use). The WLC reads elem, which most naturally yields 'silence' or 'in silence.' We follow the reading that addresses human rulers who maintain guilty silence when justice demands speech. Verse 11 (Hebrew), where the righteous 'wash their feet in the blood of the wicked,' has troubled readers throughout history. It is imprecatory language that imagines total vindication — the image is victory, not cruelty.
The corrupt-judge theme connects to Psalm 82, where God judges the 'gods' (rulers) who pervert justice. The deaf-snake imagery has parallels in Egyptian and Mesopotamian wisdom literature about snake-charming. The call for God to break teeth (v. 7) echoes Psalm 3:7. The righteous-rejoicing conclusion connects to the Song of Moses (Exodus 15) and the celebration after Haman's fall (Esther 8). Paul's use of 'snake venom under their lips' in Romans 3:13 draws from this psalm tradition.
לַמְנַצֵּ֥חַ אַל־תַּשְׁחֵ֗ת לְדָוִ֥ד מִכְתָּֽם׃
For the director of music. "Do Not Destroy." A miktam of David.
KJV To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David.
הַֽאֻמְנָ֗ם אֵ֣לֶם צֶ֭דֶק תְּדַבֵּר֑וּן מֵישָׁרִ֥ים תִּ֝שְׁפְּט֗וּ בְּנֵ֣י אָדָֽם׃
Do you rulers truly speak what is right? Do you judge the children of humanity with equity?
KJV Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
אַף־בְּ֭לֵב עוֹלֹ֣ת תִּפְעָל֑וּן בָּ֝אָ֗רֶץ חֲמַ֤ס יְדֵיכֶ֬ם תְּפַלֵּסֽוּן׃
No — in your hearts you devise injustice; on earth your hands weigh out violence.
KJV Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
זֹ֣רוּ רְשָׁעִ֣ים מֵרָ֑חֶם תָּע֥וּ מִ֝בֶּ֗טֶן דֹּבְרֵ֥י כָזָֽב׃
The wicked go astray from the womb; they wander off from birth, speaking lies.
KJV The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
חֲמַת־לָ֗מוֹ כִּדְמ֥וּת חֲמַת־נָחָ֑שׁ כְּמוֹ־פֶ֥תֶן חֵ֝רֵ֗שׁ יַאְטֵ֥ם אׇזְנֽוֹ׃
Their venom is like the venom of a serpent, like a deaf cobra that stops its ear,
KJV Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֹא־יִ֭שְׁמַע לְק֣וֹל מְלַחֲשִׁ֑ים חוֹבֵ֥ר חֲ֝בָרִ֗ים מְחֻכָּֽם׃
that will not hear the voice of charmers, no matter how skillful the spellbinder.
KJV Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
אֱלֹהִ֗ים הֲרׇס־שִׁנֵּ֥ימוֹ בְּפִ֑ימוֹ מַלְתְּע֥וֹת כְּ֝פִירִ֗ים נְתֹ֣ץ ׀ יְהֹוָֽה׃
God, smash their teeth in their mouths! Tear out the fangs of the young lions, LORD!
KJV Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
יִמָּאֲס֣וּ כְמוֹ־מַ֣יִם יִתְהַלְּכוּ־לָ֑מוֹ יִדְרֹ֥ךְ חִ֝צָּ֗ו כְּמ֣וֹ יִתְמֹלָֽלוּ׃
Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows be blunted.
KJV Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
כְּמ֣וֹ שַׁבְּל֣וּל תֶּ֣מֶס יַהֲלֹ֑ךְ נֵ֥פֶל אֵ֝֗שֶׁת בַּל־חָ֥זוּ שָֽׁמֶשׁ׃
Like a snail that dissolves as it goes, like a woman's stillborn child that never sees the sun.
KJV As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
בְּטֶ֤רֶם יָבִ֣ינוּ סִּֽירֹתֵיכֶ֣ם אָטָ֑ד כְּמוֹ־חַ֥י כְּמוֹ־חָ֝ר֗וֹן יִשְׂעָרֶֽנּוּ׃
Before your pots feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze — he will sweep them away!
KJV Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
יִשְׂמַ֣ח צַ֭דִּיק כִּי־חָזָ֣ה נָקָ֑ם פְּעָמָ֥יו יִ֝רְחַ֗ץ בְּדַ֣ם הָרָשָֽׁע׃
The righteous will rejoice when they see vindication; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
KJV The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
וְיֹאמַ֣ר אָ֭דָם אַךְ־פְּרִ֣י לַצַּדִּ֑יק אַ֥ךְ יֵשׁ־אֱ֝לֹהִ֗ים שֹׁפְטִ֥ים בָּאָֽרֶץ׃
And people will say, "Yes — there is fruit for the righteous! Yes — there is a God who judges on earth!"
KJV So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
The psalm's arc moves from the absence of human tsedeq (v. 2, rulers who do not speak righteousness) to the confirmation of divine justice (v. 12, God who judges on earth). tsedaqah is both the quality the rulers lacked and the outcome God guarantees.