Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 58:3
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
3. are estranged ] From God and His laws. Cp. Eph 4:18, “alienated from the life of God”: Col 1:21, “alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,” where St Paul uses the word ( ) employed by the LXX here.
“The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen 8:21); but these men have shewn a more than ordinary aptitude for wickedness. It has become to them a second nature.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
3 5. A description of the class to which these wicked judges belong; the deliberately wicked, who are deaf to remonstrance and incapable of reformation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The wicked are estranged from the womb – The allusion here undoubtedly is to the persons principally referred to in the psalm – the enemies of David. But their conduct toward him suggests a more general reflection in regard to all the wicked as having the same characteristics. The psalmist, therefore, instead of confining his remarks to them, makes his observations general, on the principle that all wicked men have essentially the same character, and especially in respect to the thing here affirmed, that they go astray early; that they are apostate and alienated from God from their very birth. The words, the wicked, here do not necessarily refer to the whole human family (though what is thus affirmed is true of all the human race), but to people who in their lives develop a wicked character; and the affirmation in regard to them is that they go astray early in life – from their very infancy.
Strictly speaking, therefore, it cannot be shown that the psalmist in this declaration had reference to the whole human race, or that he meant to make a universal declaration in regard to man as being early estranged or alienated from God; and the passage, therefore, cannot directly, and with exact propriety, be adduced to prove the doctrine that original sin pertains to all the race – whatever may be true on that point. If, however, it is demonstrated from other passages, and from facts, that all men are wicked or depraved, then the assertion here becomes a proof that this is from the womb – from their very birth – that they begin life with a propensity to evil – and that all their subsequent acts are but developments of the depravity or corruption with which they are born. It is only, therefore, after it is proved that people are depraved or wicked, that this passage can be cited in favor of the doctrine of original sin.
The word rendered are estranged – zoru – means properly, to go off, to turn aside, or away, to depart; and then it comes to mean to be strange, or a stranger. The proper idea in the word is that one is a stranger, or a foreigner, and the word would be properly applied to one of another tribe or nation, like the Latin hostis, and the Greek xeinos. Exo 30:33; Isa 1:7; Isa 25:2; Isa 29:5; Psa 44:20. The meaning of the term as thus explained is, that, from earliest childhood, they are as if they belonged to another people than the people of God; they manifest another spirit; they are governed by other principles than those which pertain to the righteous. Compare Eph 2:19. Their first indications of character are not those of the children of God, but are alien, strange, hostile to him. The phrase from the womb, refers, undoubtedly, to their birth; and the idea is, that as soon as they begin to act they act wrong; they show that they are strangers to God. Strictly speaking, this passage does not affirm anything directly of what exists in the heart before people begin to act, for it is by their speaking lies that they show their estrangement; yet it is proper to infer that where this is universal, there is something lying back of this which makes it certain that they will act thus – just as when a tree always bears the same kind of fruit, we infer that there is something in the tree, back of the actual bearing of the fruit, which makes it certain that it will bear such fruit and no other. This something in the heart of a child is what is commonly meant by original sin.
They go astray – The Hebrew word used here means to go astray, to wander, to err. It is used in reference to drunken persons who reel, Isa 28:7; and to the soul, as erring or wandering from the paths of truth and piety, Eze 48:11; Psa 95:10; Psa 119:110; Pro 21:16. The manner in which the persons here referred to did this, is indicated here by their speaking lies.
As soon as they be born – Margin, as in Hebrew, from the belly. The meaning is, not that they speak lies as soon as they are born, which could not be literally true, but that this is the first act. The first thing done is not an act of holiness, but an act of sin – showing what is in the heart.
Speaking lies – They are false in their statements; false in their promises; false in their general character. This is one of the forms of sin, indicating original depravity; and it is undoubtedly selected here because this was particularly manifested by the enemies of David. They were false, perfidious, and could not be trusted. If it be proved, therefore, that all people are wicked, then this passage becomes a proper and an important text to demonstrate that this wickedness is not the result of temptation or example, but that it is the expression of the depravity of the heart by nature; that the tendency of man by nature is not to goodness, but to sin; that the first developments of character are sinful; that there is something lying of sinful acts in people which makes it certain that they will act as they do; and that this always manifests itself in the first acts which they perform.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb] “This,” says Dr. Kennicott, “and the next two verses, I take to be the answer of Jehovah to the question in the two first verses, as the 6th, 7th, and 8th, are the answer of the psalmist, and the remainder contains the decree of Jehovah.” He calls these wicked men, men who had been always wicked, originally and naturally bad, and brought up in falsehood, flattery, and lying. The part they acted now was quite in character.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Estranged, to wit, from God, Eph 4:18, and from all goodness.
From the womb; either,
1. Hyperbolically; even from their tender years. Or,
2. Strictly and properly. So the sense is, No wonder they act so unrighteously, for their very natures and principles are corrupt, even from their birth; they are the wicked offspring of sinful parents. And this hereditary and native corruption, though too common to all men, he particularly ascribes to these men; either because their immediate parents were such as did not only convey a corrupt nature to them, but greatly improved it by wicked counsel and example; or because they themselves had improved that stock of original corruption, and instead of mortifying it, had made it their great design and constant business to gratify and obey it.
They go astray, by actual sins, the fruit of their original sin, as soon as they be born; from their childhood, as soon as ever they were capable of the exercise of reason, and the practice of sinning.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3-5. describe the wickedgenerally, who sin naturally, easily, malignantly, and stubbornly.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The wicked are estranged from the womb,…. Which original corruption of nature accounts for all the wickedness done by men: they are conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity, and are transgressors from the womb; they are alienated from God, and from that godly life which is agreeable to him, and he requires; and from the knowledge and fear of him, and love to him; and they desire not the knowledge of him nor his ways; they are far from his law, and averse to it; and still more so to the Gospel of Christ; the doctrines of which, as well as the great things written in the law, are strange things to them; and they are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, estranged from the people of God, know nothing of them, neither of their joys, nor of their sorrows;
they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies; they are wicked from their infancy, from their youth upward; and sin, which is meant by “going astray”, as soon as they are capable of it, and which is very early. Sin soon appears in the temper and actions of then; they go out of God’s way, and turn everyone to their own way, and walk in the broad road which leads to destruction: and particularly they are very early guilty of lying; as soon as they can speak, and before they can speak plain, they lisp out lies, which they learn from their father the devil, who is the father of lies; and so they continue all their days strangers to divine things, going astray from God, the God of truth, continually doing abominations and speaking lies; which continuance in these things makes the difference between reprobate men and God’s elect; for though the latter are the same by nature as the former, yet their natures are restrained, before conversion, from going into all the sins they are inclined to; and if not, yet at conversion a stop is put to their progress in iniquity.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
After this bold beginning the boldest figures follow one another rapidly; and the first of these is that of the serpent, which is kept up longer than any of the others. The verb (cogn. ) is intentionally written in this instance in a neuter, not an active sense, plural lar , like , . Bakius recognises a retrospective reference to this passage in Isa 48:8. In such passages Scripture bears witness to the fact, which is borne out by experience, that there are men in whom evil from childhood onwards has a truly diabolical character, i.e., a selfish character altogether incapable of love. For although hereditary sinfulness and hereditary sin (guilt) are common to all men, yet the former takes the most manifold combinations and forms; and, in fact, the inheriting of sin and the complex influence of the power of evil and of the power of grace on the propagation of the human race require that it should be so. The Gospel of John more particularly teaches such a dualism of the natures of men. (with Rebia, as in Joh 18:18) is not the subject: the poison belonging to them, etc., but a clause by itself: poison is to them, they have poison; the construct state here, as in Lam 2:18; Eze 1:27, does not express a relation of actual union, but only a close connection. (with the orthophonic Dagesh which gives prominence to the Teth as the commencement of a syllable) is an optative future form, which is also employed as an indicative in the poetic style, e.g., Psa 18:11. The subject of this attributive clause, continuing the adjective, is the deaf adder, such an one, viz., as makes itself deaf; and in this respect (as in their evil serpent nature) it is a figure of the self-hardening evil-doer. Then with begins the more minute description of this adder. There is a difference even among serpents. They belong to the worst among them that are inaccessible to any kind of human influence. All the arts of sorcery are lost upon them. are the whisperers of magic formulae (cf. Arabic naffathat , adjurations), and is one who works binding by spells, exorcism, and tying fast by magic knots (cf. , to bind = to bewitch, cf. Arab. qqd , nn , Persic bend = , vid., Isaiah, i. 118, ii. 242). The most inventive affection and the most untiring patience cannot change their mind. Nothing therefore remains to David but to hope for their removal, and to pray for it.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
3. They are estranged, being wicked from the womb. He adduces, in aggravation of their character, the circumstance, that they were not sinners of recent date, but persons born to commit sin. We see some men, otherwise not so depraved in disposition, who are drawn into evil courses through levity of mind, or bad example, or the solicitation of appetite, or other occasions of a similar kind; but David accuses his enemies of being leavened with wickedness from the womb, alleging that their treachery and cruelty were born with them. We all come into the world stained with sin, possessed, as Adam’s posterity, of a nature essentially depraved, and incapable, in ourselves, of aiming at anything which is good; but there is a secret restraint upon most men which prevents them from proceeding all lengths in iniquity. The stain of original sin cleaves to the whole humanity without exception; but experience proves that some are characterised by modesty and decency of outward deportment; that others are wicked, yet, at the same time, within bounds of moderation; while a third class are so depraved in disposition as to be intolerable members of society. Now, it is this excessive wickedness — too marked to escape detestation even amidst the general corruption of mankind — which David ascribes to his enemies. He stigmatises them as monsters of iniquity.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) 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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Estranged from the womb Alienated from God and his righteousness from birth. The same doctrine of original or birth sinfulness is taught in the next member. Sin thus springs from the depth of our nature, and is the fruit of the unregenerate heart. See on Psa 51:5; Isa 48:8. Speaking lies Falsehood is here put down as the characteristic of all sin, as truth is for the genus of piety, Psa 51:6
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
David’s Verdict On The Unrighteous ( Psa 58:3-5 ).
David’s verdict on the unrighteous is that they are like this from birth. That there is within man that which causes them to go astray, a tendency to sin. They are like snakes who poison men, and never listen.
Psa 58:3
‘The wicked are estranged from the womb,
They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.’
The unrighteous are like it even from birth. They are estranged from righteousness and justice, and therefore from God, from the womb. They are ‘alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their hearts’ (Eph 4:18). As soon as they are born they begin to use deceit to get their own way. Babes in arms soon discover how they can get attention for themselves by pretending that there is something wrong. And as they grow older such deceit becomes natural to them. It arises from what men are.
Psa 58:4-5
‘Their poison is like the poison of a serpent,
They are like the deaf adder which stops her ear,
Which does not listen to the voice of charmers,
Charming never so wisely.’
As a consequence when they grow up they are like snakes who are filled with poison with which they harm others. And what is worse they are like the deadly poisonous deaf adders who will not listen to any attempt to make them hear. They go blindly on in their own way, without a thought of what they are doing. No matter how wisely God and good men speak to them, they are deaf to all attempts to reach them.
Snake charming was, and is, regularly practised in the east. By this means even snakes could be charmed into harmlessness. But not the deaf adder. It did not respond to any attempt to charm it, however subtle.
In the same ways David had made every effort to show Saul how wrong he was about him. But Saul even refused to listen to the pleas of his own son Jonathan. Whatever was said his ears were closed. All he could do was strike out with deadly poison.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 58:3. The wicked are estranged from the womb This is a strong hyperbole, a figure often used, as it is here, with great elegance by the finest writers; when, to be more expressive, they speak in such terms as apparently exceed the strict matter of fact. St. John does the same thing, when he says, If all our Saviour’s miracles and actions were to be recorded, The world itself would not contain the books which should be written: i.e. The account of them would be exceedingly long and large. But in one sense, we may add, all men are estranged from God from the womb: all are fallen.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Here are several very striking similitudes made use of, by way of setting forth the awful depravity of the human heart: the perversity even from the womb; the poison of the serpent which is deadly, and the incurableness of it by any human means, under the figure of a deaf adder. The music of the gospel is lost on such characters. No charms in grace to them; no beauty in Jesus!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Ver. 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb ] q.d. These enemies of mine are old sinners; hardened and habituated in wickedness from the very womb; it hath also grown up with them, and quite turned away their hearts from God and goodness, whereunto they stand utterly across, and have an innate antipathy; they are not only averse thereto, but adverse also; yea, to their sinews of iron they have added brows of brass, Isa 48:4 . Sinful, indeed, we are all by nature, and a birth blot we bring into the world with us, making us strangers to and strayers from God. But some God sanctifieth even from the womb, as he did Jeremiah; and some by the light of nature, not altogether extinct, and by God’s restraining grace, are reined in from notorious outrage in sin. Whereas others, cast off by God, and suffered to walk after their own heart’s lusts, in pesus indies proficiunt, wax every day worse and worse, as the apostle speaketh, till their iniquity be full, and so wrath come upon them to the utmost. But as young nettles sting straight, and young crab fish go backward, and young urchins are rough; so naughty nature soon appeareth in little ones. Valezatha, the youngest of Haman’s sons, is by the Hebrews said to be the most malicious; and hath therefore one letter in his name bigger than the rest. Hebrew Text Note
They go astray as soon as they be born
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wicked = lawless. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 58:3-5
Psa 58:3-5
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” (Psa 58:3). 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”!
“They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies” (Psa 58:3). “This, of course, is literally impossible; and those who use this verse to argue for infant depravity surely miss the author’s poetic point.
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.
Leupold pointed out that there is a close connection between Psa 58:2 and Psa 58:3. In Psa 58:2, he addressed them as men open to reason; but in Psa 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.
“They are like the deaf adder” (Psa 58:4). 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.
The whole point of Psa 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.
E.M Zerr:
Psa 58:3. Advocates of “inherited sin” try to find their doctrine in this verse. When a statement is made that cannot be interpreted literally, some figurative or accommodative sense must be given to it. We know that a newborn infant cannot speak at all, therefore he could not speak lies. The word estranged also proves the writer was not using his language literally. This word means to turn aside or forsake the way. We know that an infant cannot perform anything of that nature. The verse, therefore, means that the tendency of human beings is to follow the fleshly desires, and that they manifest that tendency early in life. We all believe that doctrine, but it has no resemblance to that of the “inherited-sin” variety.
Psa 58:4. 5. Certain beasts and serpents can be charmed or held spellbound and thus rendered harmless. There are others that will not listen or pay any attention to any attempts at fascination. The latter is used to compare the enemies of righteousness. They will viciously attack those whose lives are better than theirs, then turn a deaf ear to the protests of the victims.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
estranged: etc. Psa 51:5, Job 15:14, Pro 22:15, Isa 48:8, Eph 2:3
as soon: etc. Heb. from the belly, Psa 22:10, Isa 46:3
Reciprocal: Gen 8:21 – the imagination Psa 4:2 – leasing Psa 5:9 – For Psa 10:7 – and deceit Psa 36:3 – The words Psa 144:8 – mouth Pro 20:11 – General Isa 1:4 – gone away backward Mat 3:7 – O generation Mat 15:11 – but Mat 23:33 – serpents Mar 7:21 – out
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 58:3. The wicked are estranged From God, and from all goodness; from the womb From their tender years, or, rather, strictly and properly, from their birth: their very natures and principles are corrupt even from their infancy: they are the wicked offspring of sinful parents. They go astray by actual sins, the fruit of their original corruption; as soon as they are born As soon as ever they are capable of the exercise of reason, and the practice of sinning.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
58:3 The wicked {c} are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
(c) That is, enemies to the people of God even from their birth.