Psalms 58
What Happens in This Chapter
This psalm is a prayer against judges and leaders who use their power to hurt people instead of helping them. The writer says these leaders lie and do harm from the start, and he asks God to stop them. He pictures them fading away like water, a slug, and a fire snuffed out. At the end, people see that God really does judge the earth.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
1You leaders, do you really say what is right? Do you judge people fairly?
The King James Bible says "congregation" here, but the word means the rulers and judges who were supposed to settle people's cases fairly.
2Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
2No. In your hearts you plan wrong things. Your hands hand out harm all over the land.
3The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
3People who do wrong turn away from God from the day they are born. They tell lies from the very start.
4Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
4Their words are like snake venom. They are like a cobra that shuts its ears.
5Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
5It will not listen to the snake charmer, no matter how well he plays.
A snake charmer played music to calm a snake. The picture is a snake that will not listen no matter what.
6Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
6God, break the teeth in their mouths. LORD, tear out the sharp teeth of these lions.
7Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
7May they drain away like water that runs off. When they shoot their arrows, may the arrows be dull.
8As 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.
8May they melt away like a slug that dissolves. May they be like a baby born dead, who never sees the sun.
9Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
9The fire under your pots is made of thorn twigs. Before the pots even feel the heat, God will sweep these people away.
People burned dry thorn twigs to cook. Thorns flare up fast and burn out fast, so the pot barely gets warm.
10The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
10People who do right will be glad when they see God punish the wrong. They will wash their feet in the blood of those who did harm.
11So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
11Then people will say, "Doing right really does bring a reward. There really is a God who judges the earth."
← → to turn the page · P for plain English · click a verse to sit with it