Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 58:4

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 58:4. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent — When they bite, they convey poison into the wound, as the serpent does. They not only injure you by outward acts, but by their malevolence they poison your reputation. They do you as much evil as they can, and propagate the worst reports that others may have you in abhorrence, treat you as a bad and dangerous man; and thus, as the poison from the bite of the serpent is conveyed into the whole mass of blood, and circulates with it through all the system, carrying death every where; so they injurious speeches and vile insinuations circulate through society, and poison and blast your reputation in every place. Such is the slanderer, and such his influence in society. From such no reputation is safe; with such no character is sacred; and against such there is no defence. God alone can shield the innocent from the envenomed tongue and lying lips of such inward monsters in the shape of men.

Like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear — It is a fact that cannot be disputed with any show of reason, that in ancient times there were persons that charmed, lulled to inactivity, or professed to charm, serpents, so as to prevent them from biting. See Ecclesiastes 10:11; Jeremiah 8:17. The prince of Roman poets states the fact, VIRG. Ecl. viii., ver. 71.

Frigidus in prati cantando rumpitur anguis.

"In the meadows the cold snake is burst by incantation."

The same author, AEn. vii., ver. 750, gives us the following account of the skill of Umbro, a priest of the Marrubians: -

Quin et Marrubia venit de gente sacerdos,

Fronde super galeam, et felici comptus oliva,

Archippi regis missu, fortissimus Umbro;

Vipereo generi, et graviter spirantibus hydris,

Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat,

Mulcebatque iras, et morsus arte levabat.

"Umbro, the brave Marubian priest, was there,

Sent by the Marsian monarch to the war.

The smiling olive with her verdant boughs

Shades his bright helmet, and adorns his brows.

His charms in peace the furious serpent keep,

And lull the envenomed viper's race to sleep:

His healing hand allayed the raging pain;

And at his touch the poisons fled again."

PITT.

There is a particular sect of the Hindoos who profess to bring serpents into subjection, and deprive them of their poison, by incantation. See at the end of this Psalm. Psalms 58:11.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 58:0 Corrupt judges

In Psalms 10-17 the psalmist considered the problem of the poor and innocent being trampled underfoot by people of power and wealth. (See notes on these psalms, including the special note that follows Psalms 10:0.) In Psalms 58:0 the psalmist deals more specifically with those who make such a situation possible, the corrupt judges. Evil in thoughts and actions, they are deaf to any pleas for justice (1-5). The psalmist appeals to God to break their power and destroy them, so that they disappear from human society (6-9). The righteous will rejoice when corruption and oppression receive their fitting judgment from God (10-11).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

THE TYRANTS DESCRIBED

“The wicked are estranged from the womb: They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, Which hearkeneth not to the voice of charmers, Charming never so wisely.”

“They are estranged from the womb” Those who see this verse as teaching total hereditary depravity find what is absolutely not in it. “The words `total,’ `hereditary,’ and `depravity’ are not in the Bible, not even in one in a place, much less all three together”!George DeHoff’s Commentary, Vol. III, p. 154.

“They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies” “This, of course, is literally impossible; and those who use this verse to argue for infant depravity surely miss the author’s poetic point.”Anthony L. Ash, Jeremiah and Lamentations (Abilene, Texas: A.C.U. Press, 1987), p. 198.

What is meant here is simply that the total lives of the wicked are evil, their very earliest activities having given evidence of it. “The most inventive affection and the most untiring patience cannot change the minds of such wicked men. Nothing remains, therefore, for David, except to pray for their removal.”F. Delitzsch, Vol. V-B, p. 182.

Leupold pointed out that there is a close connection between Psalms 58:2 and Psalms 58:3. In Psalms 58:2, he addressed them as men open to reason; but in Psalms 58:3, having recognized their stubborn perversity in evil, he refrains from further reasoning with them, and begins to speak “Of them, rather than to them.”H. C. Leupold, p. 436.

“They are like the deaf adder” The metaphor here is that of a poisonous serpent which cannot be charmed. “It pictures an evil person so intent upon wickedness that he cannot be dissuaded.”Anthony L. Ash, Jeremiah and Lamentations (Abilene, Texas: A.C.U. Press, 1987), p. 198.

The whole point of Psalms 58:3-5 is that the wicked men addressed are already hardened in sin and that the hope of changing them is nil. It is an exercise in futility to pray for the inveterate enemies of God who are intent only upon destruction.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Their poison - Their malignity; their bad spirit; that which they utter or throw out of their mouth. The reference here is to what they speak or utter Psalms 58:3, and the idea is, that it is penetrating and deadly.

Like the poison of a serpent - Margin, as in Hebrew, “according to the likeness.” In this expression no particular class of serpents is referred to except those which are “poisonous.”

Like the deaf adder - Margin, “asp.” The word may refer either to the viper, the asp, or the adder. See the notes at Isaiah 11:8. The “particular” idea here is, that the serpent referred to was as it were “deaf;” it could not be tamed or charmed; it seemed to stop its own ears, so that there was no means of rendering it a safe thing to approach it. The supposition is that there “were” serpents which, though deadly in their poison, “might” be charmed or tamed, but that “this” species of serpent could “not.” The sense, as applied to the wicked, is, that there was no way of overcoming their evil propensities - of preventing them from giving utterance to words that were like poison, or from doing mischief to all with whom they came in contact. They were malignant, and there was no power of checking their malignity. Their poison was deadly, and there was no possibility of restraining them from doing evil.

That stoppeth her ear - Which “seems” to stop her ear; which refuses to hear the words and incantations by which other serpents are subdued and tamed. Others, however, refer this to the man himself, meaning, “like the deaf adder he stops his ear;” that is, he voluntarily makes himself like the adder that does not hear, and that will not be tamed. The former interpretation, however, is to be preferred.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

4.Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder ⁽³⁴⁸⁾ He prosecutes his description; and, though he might have insisted on the fierceness which characterised their opposition, he charges them more particularly, here as elsewhere, with the malicious virulence of their disposition. Some read, their fury; ⁽³⁴⁹⁾ but this does not suit the figure, by which they are here compared to serpents. No objection can be drawn to the translation we have adopted from the etymology of the word, which is derived from heat. It is well known, that while some poisons kill by cold, others consume the vital parts by a burning heat. David then asserts of his enemies, in this passage, that they were as full of deadly malice as serpents are full of poison. The more emphatically to express their consummate subtlety, he compares them to deaf serpents, which shut their ears against the voice of the charmer — not the common kind of serpents, but such as are famed for their cunning, and are upon their guard against every artifice of that description. But is there such a thing, it may be asked, as enchantment? If there were not, it might seem absurd and childish to draw a comparison from it, unless we suppose David to speak in mere accommodation to mistaken, though generally received opinion. ⁽³⁵⁰⁾ He would certainly seem, however, to insinuate that serpents can be fascinated by enchantment; and I can see no harm in granting it. The Marsi in Italy were believed by the ancients to excel in the art. Had there been no enchantments practiced, where was the necessity of their being forbidden and condemned under the Law? (Deuteronomy 18:11.) I do not mean to say that there is an actual method or art by which fascination can be effected. It was doubtless done by a mere sleight of Satan, ⁽³⁵¹⁾ whom God has suffered to practice his delusions upon unbelieving and ignorant men, although he prevents him from deceiving those who have been enlightened by his word and Spirit. But we may avoid all occasion for such curious inquiry, by adopting the view already referred to, that David here borrows his comparison from a popular and prevailing error, and is to be merely supposed as saying, that no kind of serpent was imbued with greater craft than his enemies, not even the species (if such there were) which guards itself against enchantment.

(348) The פתן, phethen, rendered adder, is generally supposed by interpreters to be the kind of serpent called by the ancients the aspic, and to which there are frequent allusions in Scripture. Deuteronomy 32:33; Job 20:14; Isaiah 11:8. It is the בתם, boeten, of the Arabians, which M. Forskal (Descript Anim p. 15) describes as spotted with black and white, about one foot in length, nearly half an inch thick, oviparous, and its bite almost instant death; and which is called “the aspic” by the literati of Cyprus, though the common people give it the name of κουφη,deaf

(349) This is the reading of the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and of Jerome. Sept. “Θυμὸς.” Vulg. and Jeremiah “Furor.”

(350) That the serpent tribe may be charmed is a well-attested fact, and one of the most curious and interesting in natural history. It is often mentioned by the Greek and Roman classics, by Hebrew and Arabic writers; to the last of whom the different species of serpents were well known. It is also supported by the testimony of many modern travelers. Some serpents are delighted with the sounds of vocal and instrumental music, and by it may be disarmed of their fury and rendered innoxious, (Ecclesiastes 10:11.) In the East it is not uncommon to make use of pipes, flutes, whistles, or small drums, to draw them from their hiding-places and to subdue their ferocity; and when they are tame ones, the charmer makes them dance and keep time with the notes of music, twists them round his body, and handles them without any harm, although the fangs are not broken or extracted. But in some cases the charmer’s art fails; and, notwithstanding his incantations, the serpent will fasten on the arm, or some other part of the body, and inflict, with its poisoned fangs, a deadly wound, (Jeremiah 8:17.) In this case it “will not listen to the voice of the charmer.” It is not necessary to suppose that the “deaf adder” means a species of serpent naturally deaf, and which it is impossible for the charmer ever to fascinate. Nothing more may be meant but that his incantations sometimes fail of success; that some adders are so stubborn that the sound of music makes no impression upon them; and they are like creatures who are destitute of hearing, or whose ears are stopped. The manner in which the “deaf adder stoppeth its ear” is described by Lochart to be this: — “The reptile lays one ear close to the ground, and with its tail covers the other, that it cannot hear the sound of the music; or it repels the incantation by hissing violently.” So impenetrable are the wicked here represented to be to persuasion: they will not be wrought upon to forsake their wicked courses, and gained to the ways of God, by his most persuasive entreaties.

(351) The power which charmers had over serpents was probably ascribed by them to the agency of invisible beings, although it might be the natural effect of the music which they used.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 58:1-11

Psalms 58:1-11 is a prayer of David. I would not want to be one of David's enemies because of his prayers.

Do you indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do you judge uprightly, O you sons of men? Yes, in heart you work wickedness; you weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies ( Psalms 58:1-3 ).

Now David is talking about the nature, the sinful nature of man. Now, I don't think there were any of you that had to teach your children to tell a lie. You had to teach them to tell the truth. You don't say, "Well now, if you get in trouble just lie about it and get out of it." They seem to just do that naturally. So you have to teach them you've got to tell the truth at all times. David said, "They went forth from the womb, speaking lies. They were estranged from the womb. As soon as they are born, speaking lies."

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming ever so wisely. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth ( Psalms 58:4-6 ):

David didn't mess around.

break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD. Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be cut in pieces. As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away ( Psalms 58:6-8 ):

Have you ever poured salt on a snail and watch it melt?

like the untimely birth of a woman, that may not see the sun. Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as the whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judges in the eaRuth ( Psalms 58:8-11 ).

Now, coming as we do from our Christian ethic, from the New Testament, we have difficulty in David's prayers. Because Jesus told us that we are to love those who hate us; we are to do good to those who despitefully use us. Bless those that curse you. And the ethic that we have learned from Christ in the New Testament is much different.

Now, I find David's ethic pretty satisfying with me. I like vengeance. I like to see the bad guys get beat and the good guys win. And I like to see the wicked really taken care of for good. I must confess that I rejoice in such things. But I must also confess that such rejoicing is wrong according to the New Testament ethic, the Christian ethic. And yet, there is just something about my own nature that is similar to David's, in that when someone has really done something that is truly evil, I like to see vengeance come upon them.

Now, where I have to be careful is that I so often want to bring vengeance on them myself, and that is where I can really get in trouble. God said, "Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord." Now notice, David isn't really seeking to bring vengeance himself; he is asking God to knock the teeth out of their mouths. Asking God to take vengeance on them. I don't know that it is much better, but we must be careful about trying to take personal vengeance upon people who we feel have wronged us, or who have wronged us. We must learn to commit ourselves and our ways unto the Lord, and let the Lord take care of them. It is not mine to become Captain Avenger and go out and right all of the evils of the world.

But David does pray in these psalms, but as I say, it is not in keeping with the New Testament ethic. And I have to pray, not as David prayed, but I have to pray, "Lord, keep my heart from devising vengeance, and keep me, Lord, from wanting to take vengeance. And oh God, help me to have a forgiving attitude and spirit towards those that I feel this, I would like to take vengeance on." "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. The marks of crooked judges 58:1-5

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 58

In this prophetic lament psalm, David called on God to judge corrupt judges so the righteous would continue to trust in the Lord. [Note: See Day, pp. 169-73.] This is also an imprecatory psalm.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

David proceeded to answer his own questions. Instead of practicing justice, these rulers planned injustice and violence (cf. Micah 3:1-3; Micah 3:9-11; Micah 6:12). They spoke lies and did not respond to the warnings of others. Furthermore, they had a long history of destructive behavior.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Their poison [is] like the poison of a serpent,.... Either their "wrath" and fury, as the word x may be rendered, against God, his people, and even one another, is like that of a serpent when irritated and provoked; or their mischievous and devouring words are like the poison of asps under their lips, Romans 3:13; or the malignity of sin in them is here meant, which, like the poison of a serpent, is latent, hid, and lurking in them; is very infectious to all the powers and faculties of the soul, and members of the body; and is deadly and incurable, without the grace of God and blood of Christ;

[they are] like the deaf adder [that] stoppeth her ear; the adder is a kind of serpent, in Hebrew called "pethen"; hence the serpent "Python". This is not, deaf naturally, otherwise it would have no need to stop its ear, but of choice; and naturalists y observe, that it is quicker of hearing than of sight. Jarchi indeed says, when it grows old it becomes deaf in one of its ears, and it stops its other ear with dust, that it may not hear the voice of the charmer; though others say z it stops one ear with its tail, and lays the other to the ground; but these seem fabulous. David speaks of it figuratively, that it acts as if it was deaf, regarding no enchantments, but bites notwithstanding; these having no influence on it, which, if they had any, could not be hindered by its deafness; and he compares wicked men to it, who are wilfully deaf to all good counsel and advice given them a.

x חמת θυμος, Sept. "furor", V. L. y Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 23. z Isidor. Hispal. Origin. l. 12. c. 4. a Vid. Gataker. Adversaria, c. 8. p. 70, &c.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

To the chief musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David.

      1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?   2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.   3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.   4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;   5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

      We have reason to think that this psalm refers to the malice of Saul and his janizaries against David, because it bears the same inscription (Al-taschith, and Michtam of David) with that which goes before and that which follows, both which appear, by the title, to have been penned with reference to that persecution through which God preserved him (Al-taschith--Destroy not), and therefore the psalms he then penned were precious to him, Michtams--David's jewels, as Dr. Hammond translates it.

      In these verses David, not as a king, for he had not yet come to the throne, but as a prophet, in God's name arraigns and convicts his judges, with more authority and justice than they showed in prosecuting him. Two things he charges them with:

      I. The corruption of their government. They were a congregation, a bench of justices, nay, perhaps, a congress or convention of the states, from whom one might have expected fair dealing, for they were men learned in the laws, had been brought up in the study of these statutes and judgments, which were so righteous that those of other nations were not to be compared with them. One would not have thought a congregation of such could be bribed and biassed with pensions, and yet, it seems, they were, because the son of Kish could do that for them which the son of Jesse could not, 1 Samuel 22:7. He had vineyards, and fields, and preferments, to give them, and therefore, to please him, they would do any thing, right or wrong. Of all the melancholy views which Solomon took of this earth and its grievances, nothing vexed him so much as to see that in the place of judgment wickedness was there,Ecclesiastes 3:16. So it was in Saul's time. 1. The judges would not do right, would not protect or vindicate oppressed innocency (Psalms 58:1; Psalms 58:1): "Do you indeed speak righteousness, or judge uprightly? No; you are far from it; your own consciences cannot but tell you that you do not discharge the trust reposed in you as magistrates, by which you are bound to be a terror to evil-doers and a praise to those that do well. Is this the justice you pretend to administer? Is this the patronage, this the countenance, which an honest man and an honest cause may expect from you? Remember you are sons of men; mortal and dying, and that you stand upon the same level before God with the meanest of those you trample upon, and must yourselves be called to an account and judged. You are sons of men, and therefore we may appeal to yourselves, and to that law of nature which is written in every man's heart: Do you indeed speak righteousness? And will not your second thoughts correct what you have done?" Note, It is good for us often to reflect upon what we say with this serious question, Do we indeed speak righteousness? that we may unsay what we have spoken amiss and may proceed no further in it. 2. They did a great deal of wrong; they used their power for the support of injury and oppression (Psalms 58:2; Psalms 58:2): In heart you work wickedness (all the wickedness of the life is wrought in the heart). It intimates that they wrought with a great deal of plot and management, not by surprise, but with premeditation and design, and with a strong inclination to it and resolution in it. The moire there is of the heart in any act of wickedness the worse it is, Ecclesiastes 8:11. And what was their wickedness? It follows, "You weigh the violence of your hands in the earth" (or in the land), "the peace of which you are appointed to be the conservators of." They did all the violence and injury they could, either to enrich or avenge themselves, and they weighed it; that is, 1. They did it with a great deal of craft and caution: "You frame it by rule and lines" (so the word signifies), "that it may effectually answer your mischievous intentions; such masters are you of the art of oppression." 2. They did it under colour of justice. They held the balances (the emblem of justice) in their hands, as if they designed to do right, and right is expected from them, but the result is violence and oppression, which are practised the more effectually for being practised under the pretext of law and right.

      II. The corruption of their nature. This was the root of bitterness from which that gall and wormwood sprang (Psalms 58:3; Psalms 58:3): The wicked, who in heart work wickedness, are estranged from the womb, estranged from God and all good, alienated from the divine life, and its principles, powers, and pleasures, Ephesians 4:18. A sinful state is a state of estrangement from that acquaintance with God and service of him which we were made for. Let none wonder that these wicked men dare do such things, for wickedness is bred in the bone with them; they brought it into the world with them; they have in their natures a strong inclination to it; they learned it from their wicked parents, and have been trained up in it by a bad education. They are called, and not miscalled, transgressors from the womb; one can therefore expect no other than that they will deal very treacherously; see Isaiah 48:8. They go astray from God and their duty as soon as they are born, (that is, as soon as possibly they can); the foolishness that is bound up in their hearts appears with the first operations of reason; as the wheat springs up, the tares spring up with it. Three instances are here given of the corruption of nature:-- 1. Falsehood. They soon learn to speak lies, and bend their tongues, like their bows, for that purpose, Jeremiah 9:3. How soon will little children tell a lie to excuse a fault, or in their own commendation! No sooner can they speak than they speak to God's dishonour; tongue-sins are some of the first of our actual transgressions. 2. Malice. Their poison (that is, their ill-will, and the spite they bore to goodness and all good men, particularly to David) was like the poison of a serpent, innate, venomous, and very mischievous, and that which they can never be cured of. We pity a dog that is poisoned by accident, but hate a serpent that is poisonous by nature. Such as the cursed enmity in this serpent's brood against the Lord and his anointed. 3. Untractableness. They are malicious, and nothing will work upon them, no reason, no kindness, to mollify them, and bring them to a better temper. They are like the deaf adder that stops her ear,Psalms 58:4; Psalms 58:5. The psalmist, having compared these wicked men, whom he here complains of, to serpents, for their poisonous malice, takes occasion thence, upon another account, to compare them to the deaf adder or viper, concerning which there was then this vulgar tradition, that whereas, by music or some other art, they had a way of charming serpents, so as either to destroy them or at least disable them to do mischief, this deaf adder would lay one ear to the ground and stop the other with her tail, so that she could not hear the voice of the enchantment, and so defeated the intention of it and secured herself. The using of this comparison neither verifies the story, nor, if it were true, justifies the use of this enchantment; for it is only an allusion to the report of such a thing, to illustrate the obstinacy of sinners in a sinful way. God's design, in his word and providence, is to cure serpents of their malignity; to this end how wise, how powerful, how well-chosen are the charms! How forcible the right words! But all in vain with most men; and what is the reason? It is because they will not hearken. None so deaf as those that will not hear. We have piped unto men, and they have not danced; how should they, when they have stopped their ears?