1For the lead player al-tashcheth, a David michtam.
2Do you, O chieftains, indeed speak justice,
in rightness judge humankind?
3In your heart you work misdeeds on earth,
weigh a case with outrage in your hands.
4The wicked backslide from the very womb,
the lie-mongers go astray from birth.
5They have venom akin to the serpent’s venom,
like the deaf viper that stops up its ears,
6so it hears not the soothsayers’ voice
nor the cunning caster of spells.
7God, smash their teeth in their mouth.
The jaws of the lions shatter, O LORD.
8Let them melt away, like water run off.
Let Him pull back His arrows so they be cut down.
9Like a snail that moves in its slime,
a woman’s stillbirth that sees not the sun,
10before their thorns ripen in bramble,
still alive and in wrath rushed to ruin.
11The just man rejoices when vengeance he sees,
his feet he will bathe in the wicked one’s blood.
12And man will say, “Yes, there is fruit for the just.
Yes, there are gods judging the earth.”
PSALM 58 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
2. Do you, O chieftains, indeed speak justice. The English reader should be warned that the Hebrew text of this psalm, from this verse to the end, with the sole exception of the ferocious verses 7 and 11, is badly mangled. As a result, a good deal of the translation is necessarily conjectural or must rely on emendation. A literal rendering of the Hebrew for this verset would be: “Indeed muteness justice you speak.” The translation reads ʾeylim, “chieftains,” instead of ʾelem, “muteness.”
3. weigh a case. The translation is based on a guess that the reference is judicial, although the entire line sounds strange. Another sense of the Hebrew verb in question is “to pave a way.”
4. backslide. The meaning of the verb zoru is in dispute.
5. like the deaf viper that stops up its ears. The peculiarity of this simile, which continues into the next verse, could conceivably derive from a piece of ancient folk zoology that we no longer possess. It is possible that the viper was thought to be deaf because it has no external ears. The wicked resemble the viper both in being venomous and in turning a deaf ear—in their case, to the pleas of their victims.
8. Let Him pull back His arrows. If in fact God is the subject of this verb (the Hebrew of the entire verset is rather crabbed), the image of shooting an arrow at the wicked is discontinuous with the image of their melting away like water. An alternative construction, somewhat strained in regard to the Hebrew syntax, would be “as they pull back their arrows, they are cut off.”
9. Like a snail that moves in its slime. The crux here in the Hebrew is the otherwise unattested noun temes. It might derive from the root meaning “to melt” (as in the verb at the beginning of verse 8) and so could refer to the slimy secretion of the snail as an image of dissolution or transience.
that sees not the sun. The Hebrew is opaque, especially because the verb as it stands is in the plural.
10. before their thorns ripen in bramble. The Hebrew seems to say, “before their thorns understand [yavinu] bramble.” The translation assumes that two consonants have been transposed in the verb, which should read yanivu, “ripen.”
still alive and in wrath rushed to ruin. The translation of the cryptic Hebrew is only a guess.
12. And man will say. Or “And a person will say.” The two Hebrew words are correct as to grammar, though they look odd as an idiom.
there are gods judging the earth. The psalm concludes with another oddity in the Hebrew text. ʾElohim, which is always treated as a singular despite its plural form when it refers to the one God, here is joined to a plural verbal form. A traditional view that the term sometimes means “magistrates” stands on shaky ground. Either the usage here is anomalous, with the actual meaning, “there is a God judging the earth,” or, as the translation assumes, the concluding statement is from the viewpoint of people in general (“man”), and not necessarily monotheistic people. According to their own theological lights, all will conclude that there are just gods on earth.