Psalm 58

¹ Do you indeed speak righteousness, silent ones? Do you judge blamelessly, you sons of men?

² No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands on the earth.

³ The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

⁴ Their poison is like the poison of a snake, like a deaf cobra that stops its ear,

⁵ which doesn’t listen to the voice of charmers, no matter how skillful the charmer may be.

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

⁷ Let them vanish like water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt.

⁸ Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.

⁹ Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns, he will sweep away the green and the burning alike.

¹⁰ The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,

¹¹ so that men shall say, “Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous. Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”

Around Psalm 58

Book context

PsalmsEditorial draft

Psalms is a collection of 150 songs and prayers used in Israel’s worship, written by several people over a long period. Headings name David most often, along with Asaph, the sons of Korah and others. The collection falls into five books, each ending with a short blessing of the LORD (41:13, 72:19, 89:52, 106:48), and it closes with a call for everything that has breath to praise the LORD (150:6). The psalms hold praise, lament, thanksgiving, confession and trust, so readers find words for nearly every season of life.

Why we say this

HisFullGlory editorial · broad consensus · not yet reviewed by a theological reader

From the text itself

Sources

Notes summarise their sources in our own words. Where Christians or scholars disagree, the note says so. Notes are not original-language evidence and do not replace the text.

AI explanation

About Psalms as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

“How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?” A prayer can begin like that, and in the Psalms it does. Four times the poet asks how long, and then, in the same short song, comes the turn: “But I trust in your loving kindness.”

That honesty runs through the whole book. Psalms is a collection of 150 songs and prayers, and it holds praise, thanksgiving, lament, confession, songs for the king, and reflections on wisdom and on God's law. It is arranged in five books and moves, on the whole, from many laments at the start to pure praise at the end.

Joy, fear, anger, guilt and doubt are all spoken to God directly.

Background

The psalms were written and gathered over several centuries. Their headings link about half of them with David and others with Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon and Moses. They were sung in the worship of the temple and later in synagogues and churches.

How Christians read it

Jews and Christians have prayed the Psalms daily for well over two thousand years. The New Testament quotes them more than any other book and reads many as speaking of Christ, among them Psalms 2, 22 and 110. The psalms that call for judgment on enemies are hard to read. Many understand them as handing vengeance over to God instead of taking it oneself.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 19 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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