Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 58

Congregation. —This rendering comes from a mistaken derivation of the Hebrew word êlem, which presents some difficulty. As pointed, it must mean silence (compare Psalm 56 (title), the only other place it occurs); and some, regardless of sense, would render, “Do ye truly in silence speak righteousness?”

Among the many conjectures on the passage, we may choose between reading elim (short for elîm, meaning gods, and in this context, as in Exodus 21:6, Exodus 22:8, and Psalm 82:6, applied to judges) and ulam (with the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, in the sense of but). To speak righteousness is, of course, to pronounce a just judgment. If we prefer the former of these options (with most modern scholars), it is best to take sons of men in the accusative rather than the vocative: do ye judge with equity the sons of men.

In heart ... in the earth (or, better, in the land).—These in the text are in antithesis. The mischief conceived in the heart is weighed out, instead of justice, by these unjust magistrates. The balance of justice is thus turned into a means of wrongdoing. But, perhaps, we should rather arrange as follows:

Rather! With your heart you work wickedness in the land,
With your hands you weigh out violence.

The Wicked. —The poet passes from his indignant challenge to the unjust judges to speak of the wicked generally. He finds that such maturity of vice points to very early depravity. Such hardened sinners must have been cradled in wickedness.

Their poison ... —Better, they have a venom like, etc. The term for serpent is the generic nâchash.

The most powerful images of determined wickedness, and of the destruction it brings about, now follow. The first is supplied by the serpent, an image made more suggestive by the accumulated evil qualities for which that animal has been considered the type from the beginning. Here the figure is heightened, as the animal is supposed to have been initially tamed, but suddenly darts out its fangs, revealing itself not only untamed but untamable.

Adder. —Hebrew, pethen, translated as asp in Deuteronomy 32:33, Job 20:14, and Isaiah 11:8 (and here by the Septuagint). In the Bible Educator iv. 103, the pethen is identified with the Egyptian cobra, the species upon which serpent charmers practise their specialized skill.

Deaf. —Similarly, Jeremiah 8:17 refers to various kinds of serpents that will not be charmed. Here, however, it seems as if the poet were thinking of some individual of a species, generally docile, that obstinately resists the spells and incantations of the charmer.

The image of the deaf adder was a favourite with Shakespeare, who, no doubt, derived it from this psalm.

“Pleasure and revenge
Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice
Of any true decision.”

Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2.

(Compare 2 Henry VI, iii. 2.)

Charmers. —Heb., melachashîm, a word undoubtedly formed from the sound made by the charmer in imitating the snake, in order to entice it from its hole. Lane, in Modern Egyptians, describing a snake charmer at his task, says: “He assumes an air of mystery, strikes the walls with a short palm stick, whistles, makes a clacking noise with his tongue.” The art of serpent charming, and the magic connected with it, was of great antiquity in Egypt, and passed from there to surrounding countries.

Charming never so wisely. —Literally, one tying knots wisely, that is, a most skilful charmer.