Psalms 58

This Psalm begins with an indignant remonstrance with those in authority, who not only fail to administer justice equitably, but are themselves among the worst of offenders (Psalms 58:1-2). A description of the incurably wicked, among whom, it is implied, such men must be classed, follows (Psalms 58:3-5), and leads up to a prayer (or perhaps an expression of confident assurance) that God will render them powerless to hurt, or utterly destroy them (Psalms 58:6-9). The Psalm concludes with a description of the double result of the judgement: the righteous who are freed from their oppressors rejoice; and men in general acknowledge God’s moral government of the world (Psalms 58:10-11). The Psalm is remarkable for the vigour of its language and the boldness of its figures. It has a ring of prophetic authority, in its denunciation of wicked men in high place, and its prediction of the certainty of their downfall. Adhering to the title, which assigns it to David, Delitzsch supposes that it refers to Absalom’s rebellion. In Psalms 58:1-2 we might find an allusion to Absalom’s pretended zeal for justice (2 Samuel 15:2 ff.), while in reality he was meditating the most monstrous crimes: the language of Psa 58:3 ff. is not too severe for the graceless treachery of the son who shrank from no extremes, and coldly contemplated parricide (2 Samuel 16, 2 Samuel 17:1-4): Psalms 58:6-9 might well refer to the sudden and complete collapse of the rebellion, and Psalms 58:10-11 to the rejoicing of David’s sympathisers at the victory (2 Samuel 18:19 ff.; note the phrase, “the Lord hath judged and delivered him out of the hand of his enemies”; Psalms 19:2). But it is inconceivable that at any point of time, before or after the outbreak of the insurrection, David could have used the language of the Psalm with reference to Absalom. Beforehand indeed (though we may draw a wrong inference from the brevity of the narrative in 2 Sam.) he seems to have been blind to what was going on: and when he knew the worst, his feelings of anxiety for the personal safety of Absalom and finally of grief at his death (2 Samuel 18:5; 2 Samuel 18:33; 2 Samuel 19:4), are as unlike the severe indignation of this Psalm as anything could well be. If it refers to Absalom’s rebellion, it can never have been written by David. More probably however it belongs to some later period in the history of Israel. There is no sufficient ground for supposing that the unjust judges are foreigners, whether Babylonians, Persians, or Syrians, and that the Psalm is post-exilic. The evils complained of are precisely those against which the prophets of the regal period are constantly inveighing. Compare generally Psalms 12, 14, and especially 82; and with the concluding verses cp. the conclusions of 64 and 140. For the title see Psalms 57.

Psalms 58:1-2

1, 2. An indignant remonstrance with those in authority, who, instead of condemning crime, are themselves the most guilty criminals.

Psalms 58:2

2. Yea] Or, Nay, for the particle implies a negative answer, and an additional accusation. Far from judging equitably, you are yourselves the greatest offenders. in heart] Inwardly they are ever contriving some scheme of injustice, like the nobles against whom Micah inveighs (Psalms 2:1), as “working evil upon their beds.” ye weigh] R.V., ye weigh out. There is a bitter irony in the use of a word strictly applicable to justice only. For the metaphor of the ‘scales of justice’ cp. Job 31:6. in the earth] Or, in the land; publicly and openly, carrying into execution the schemes they contrive in their hearts. Cp. Micah 2:1.

Psalms 58:3-5

3–5. A description of the class to which these wicked judges belong; the deliberately wicked, who are deaf to remonstrance and incapable of reformation.

Psalms 58:4-5

4, 5. They are not only insidious and venomous as serpents, but obstinately oppose all attempts to control them; like the deaf adder or asp, most venomous of all serpents, which resists all the arts of the charmer. The Arabs distinguish the ‘deaf’ serpent from that which answers the call of the charmer by hissing. Snake charming is alluded to in Ecclesiastes 10:11; Jeremiah 8:17; Sir 12:13, and is still practised in Africa and the East. As the asp is deaf to the voice of the enchanter, so these men shut their ears to the warnings and exhortations of the prophets. Experience confirms the teaching of the Psalmist that among the endless varieties of human character, there are some which exhibit a diabolical aptitude for evil and opposition to good. In the light of God’s infinite love, none are outside the pale of His mercy; yet it lies in the power of man to defeat the operations of His grace (Matthew 12:31).

Psalms 58:6-9

6–9. Since they are thus obstinately and incurably evil, nothing remains but that they should be deprived of their power to hurt or altogether destroyed.

Psalms 58:7

7. as waters which run continually) R.V., restoring P.B.V., as water that runneth apace: like some torrent that rages wildly for a while when swollen by a sudden storm, and then vanishes entirely (Job 6:15 ff.). when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows] A cumbrous rendering of a peculiar phrase, the verb strictly applicable to the bow being used of the arrows (cp. Psalms 64:3). Better as R.V., when he aimeth his arrows. But who is the subject? (1) It may be the wicked man, (as in Psalms 64:3); When he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off (R.V.), their points broken, and their power to hurt destroyed. (2) It may be God (as in Psalms 7:12 f.); when He aimeth His arrows, let them (the wicked) be as it were mowed down. Cp. Psalms 90:6. Neither alternative is free from serious difficulties, but the first seems preferable.

Psalms 58:8

8. Let them be like a snail which melts away and is gone: Like the untimely births of women, that have not seen the sun. Two more figures for the destruction of the wicked:—let them melt away; nay, vanish as though they had never existed. The word shablûl puzzled the ancient translators. The LXX render it ‘wax’ (doubtless to suit the verb ‘melt’), Jerome ‘worm’; but later Hebrew attests the meaning snail. But what is the point of comparison? Is it that the snail seems to melt away as it goes along, leaving a slimy track behind it, or perhaps was popularly supposed to do so? or is it not rather an allusion to the way in which snails dry up and perish in drought? There are to be found in all parts of Palestine “myriads of snail shells in fissures, still adhering by the calcareous exudation round their orifice to the surface of the rock, but the animal of which is utterly shrivelled and wasted—‘melted away,’ according to the expression of the Psalmist.” Tristram, Nat. Hist, of Bible, p. 296. For the second figure cp. Job 3:16; Ecclesiastes 6:3-5. That they may not see the sun (A.V.) is an ungrammatical rendering.

Psalms 58:9

9. The general sense of the verse is clear, though the second line is extremely obscure and possibly corrupt. The first line certainly means, Before your pots can feel the thorns (possibly a proverbial expression), and the verb in the second line means, He shall sweep them (or, it) away with a whirlwind. It is another figure for the swift destruction of the wicked and their schemes, taken from the experience of travel in the desert. The travellers have lighted a fire of dry thorns or brambles under their cooking pots. It blazes up rapidly, but even so, before the pots are heated and the meat in them cooked, a sudden whirlwind sweeps away the fire and undoes their work. The fire represents the malicious will of the evildoers, the pots with the meat the plans which they are devising: but let them work never so rapidly, the whirlwind of divine judgement will annihilate their schemes. The crux of the verse is in the words rendered in A.V. both living and in his wrath. They have been supposed to refer to the thorns, the green and the burning alike: or to the flesh in the pot, the raw flesh and the sodden alike: or to the flesh and the fire, the raw flesh and hot embers alike: but all these interpretations break down on the fact that chβrτn, though not a rare word, always means the burning wrath of God. It seems necessary either to omit the word k’mτ, ‘as,’ before chβrτn, or to read b’inτ, ‘in,’ instead of it (αξε for λξε). We may then render, Like raw flesh (= perhaps, while the flesh is yet raw), shall Wrath sweep them away with a whirlwind; or, shall He sweep them away with a whirlwind in wrath. The pronoun for them is in the singular, and may mean each one of the wicked, or perhaps rather it, the whole scheme. For a figure from cooking cp. Hosea 7:4 ff.: for the thorn fires Isaiah 33:12; Ecclesiastes 7:6; and for the whirlwind of divine wrath see Psalms 50:3, “it shall be very tempestuous round about him”; Job 27:21.

Psalms 58:10-11

10, 11. The issues of the judgement: the righteous rejoice in the discomfiture of their oppressors: men in general recognise the reality of God’s moral government of the world.

Psalms 58:11

11. So that a man shall say] Rather, So that men shall say: the mass of men, who are neither ‘righteous’ nor ‘wicked,’ but as it were spectators of the conflict between the righteous and the wicked. Verily] This particle expresses the recognition of a truth which has been obscured or questioned: ‘after all,’ ‘surely.’ Cp. Psalms 73:1. a reward] Lit. fruit. Cf. Isaiah 3:10. Their patient continuance in well-doing bears its harvest in due time (Galatians 6:9). verily he is a God] Better, Verily there is a God (R.V.). Contrary however to the general usage when God is spoken of, the predicate is in the plural: and perhaps Elτhξm is meant to be taken somewhat more vaguely, in parallelism and contrast to the judges of Psa 58:1-2—the contrast holds whether ηlξm, ‘gods,’ is read in Psalms 58:1 or not—as Divine Powers. But the reading is not above suspicion. The LXX and Syr. have that judgeth them, i.e. does the righteous justice (Psalms 43:1), the final m being read as the pronominal suffix, not as the sign of the plural[27]. [27] They must have found ωׁ ?τθν written defectively and read shτph’tβm not shτph’tξm.For like confidence in the final manifestation of God’s judgement see Psalms 7:11 ff.; Psalms 9:7 ff., Psalms 9:19; Psalms 11:4 ff.; and cp. Luke 18:7 ff.