Psalm 58: A Rebuke of Unjust Judges
A sharp confrontation of corrupt rulers and a plea for God's justice.
Psalm 58 questions a 'congregation' of judges who work wickedness instead of righteousness, describing the wicked as 'estranged from the womb' and comparing them to 'the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear.' The tone contrasts with the settled praise closing Psalms 57.
Are ye, indeed, silent [when] righteousness, ye should speak? When, with equity, ye should judge, O ye sons of men?
Aye! ye all do work, perversity,—Throughout the land, your hands, weigh out, violence!
Lawless men have been estranged from birth, They have gone astray from their nativity, speaking falsehood;
Their poison, is like unto the poison of a serpent, Like the deaf adder, that stoppeth his ear;
That will not hearken to the voice of whisperers, Though the wise one try to bind him with spells.
O God! break away their teeth in their mouth, The biters of the young lions, knock thou out, O Yahweh!
Let such men flow away like waters that disperse themselves: He prepareth his arrow, Like [grass] let them be cut down:
Like a snail, which melteth away as it goeth, An untimely birth of a woman, which hath not seen the sun:
Before your kettles can perceive the [kindled] bramble, Be he green or be he withered, he shall be swept away.
The righteous man will rejoice when he hath seen an avenging, His feet, will he bathe in the blood of the lawless one:—
So that a son of earth may say—Surely there is fruit for the righteous man! Surely there are gods who judge in the earth!