F3 B 1,2. Man's judgment. Unrighteous.
C 3-5. The wicked. Their character.
D 6-9. Imprecation.
C 10. The righteous.
B 11. God's judgment.
Psalm 58)
1 Are you indeed silent [when] you should speak righteousness, O congregation? (or faction. So human judges are dumb when they ought to speak, and deaf when they ought to hear)
When you should judge with equity, O you sons of men?
2 Yea, in heart you work wickedness;
You weigh out (or dispense) the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The lawless 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 stops her ear;
5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers,
Charming never so wisely.
6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth:
Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually:
When he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut down (like grass).
8 As a snail which melts, let every one of them pass away:
Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns (put for the fire caused by them [Ecc. 7:6]),
He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance:
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 So that a man shall say, "Verily there is a reward for the righteous:
Verily He is a God that judges in the earth." (Or, There is a God, judges in the earth [will say])