Psalms 58:4
God, show in the heavens how great you are! And show your glory to people all over the earth! What wicked people say injures people like the venom of a snake [MET]; They refuse to listen to good advice, as though they were cobras that were deaf [MET]!
Translation for Translators
In The King James Version
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
In Context
3Wicked people do wrong things and tell lies from the time that they are born [DOU].
Cross References
Genesis 8:21When Yahweh smelled the pleasant odor, he was pleased with the sacrifice. Then he said to himself, “I will never again devastate everything on the earth because of the sinful things people do. Even though everything that people think is evil from the time they are young, I will not destroy all the living creatures again, as I did this time.
Job 20:14but some day the evil things that they enjoyed doing will become like food that they swallow and which becomes as bitter as snake venom.
Psalms 51:7Purify me from the guilt of my sins, and after that happens, I will be clean in my inner being; cleanse me, and then in my inner being I will be ◄whiter than snow/very clean►.
Ecclesiastes 10:11If a snake bites a man before he charms/tames it, his ability to charm snakes will not benefit him.
Jeremiah 8:17Yahweh says, “I will send those enemy soldiers to Judah, and they will be like [MET] poisonous snakes among you. No one will be able to stop them from attacking you [MET]; they will attack you like snakes do, and kill you.”
Matthew 23:33You people are so wicked You are as dangerous as poisonous snakes [DOU, MET]! ◄You foolishly think that you will escape being punished in hell!/Do you foolishly think that you will escape when God punishes wicked people in hell?► [RHQ]
Matthew Henry on Psalms 58:2-6
A Reproof to Wicked Judges. 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… Read the whole commentary →