Psalm 58: Do You Rulers Speak Justly?

"Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies."

"Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD."

"Let them melt away as waters which run continually… 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… The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth."

Snake charmers

Snake charming is attested in Egypt and the Near East from antiquity; Jeremiah 8:17 and Ecclesiastes 10:11 mention serpents that cannot be charmed. The judges are like a cobra that will not listen: no appeal reaches them. "Ye weigh the violence of your hands": the scales of justice now measure out violence.

Images of vanishing

Broken teeth, water running away, blunted arrows, a snail dissolving, a stillborn child, thorns swept away before the pot heats: the curse piles up images of things that vanish. They are the language of protest by the powerless against judges who cannot be removed by law.

"O congregation" or "O gods"

58:1 Hebrew ha'umnam 'elem tsedeq tedabberun: 'elem usually means "silence" ("Do you indeed speak righteousness in silence?"). Many scholars read 'elim, "gods" or "mighty ones": "Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?" As in Psalm 82, the rulers (human or heavenly) are put on trial. The KJV's "congregation" is an interpretation; the library's Greek and Latin leave the word out (Vulgate "Si vere utique justitiam loquimini").

The ethics of the last verses

"He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked" is among the harshest lines in Scripture. It belongs with the imprecatory psalms (see Psalm 35). It is a prayer that God, not the speaker, will end injustice, and that people will see that there is a judge. The site presents the words without softening them.

The heading

"To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David." Al-tashheth, "Do not destroy," heads Psalms 57, 58, 59 and 75. It may be the opening words of a tune (Isaiah 65:8 quotes a saying, "Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it") or a prayer formula (compare Moses in Deuteronomy 9:26). The library's Vulgate translates it: "ne disperdas."

Left out of the prayer book

When the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours was revised (1971), Psalms 58, 83 and 109 were omitted from the cycle of psalms because of their imprecations, and verses were removed from some others. Other traditions, such as monastic communities using the full Psalter, still pray them. The decision itself is part of the psalm's history of reception.