Psalms 58 (KJV)

Chapter Text

58:1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?

58:2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

58:4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;

58:5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

58:6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

58:7 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.

58:8 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.

58:9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.

58:10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

58:11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "indeed", "speak", "righteousness", "congregation", "judge", "uprightly", "sons", and "heart". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "indeed" and "speak", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The local KJV text gives this verse as the immediate unit, so "indeed" and "speak" carries the first interpretive weight. In Psalms context, the local focus is worship, trust, the LORD's kingship, and covenant mercy.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "indeed" and "speak" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.