Psalms 58:2

2 No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth.

Psalms 58:2 in Other Translations

2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.

2 No! You plot injustice in your hearts. You spread violence throughout the land.

2 Behind the scenes you brew cauldrons of evil, behind closed doors you make deals with demons.

2 No, you practice injustice in your hearts; with your hands you weigh out violence in the land.

Psalms 58:2 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 58:2

Yea, in heart ye work wickedness
So far were they from speaking righteousness, and judging uprightly. The heart of man is wickedness itself; it is desperately wicked, and is the shop in which all wickedness is wrought; for sinful acts are committed there as well as by the tongue and hand, as follows. This phrase also denotes their sinning; not with precipitancy, and through surprise; but with premeditation and deliberation; and their doing it heartily, with good will, and with allowance, and their continuance and constant persisting in it;

ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth;
they were guilty of acts of violence and oppression, which, of all men, judges should not be guilty of; whose business it is to plead the cause of the injured and oppressed, to right their wrongs, and to protect and defend them: these they pretended to weigh in the balance of justice and equity, and committed them under a show of righteousness; they decreed unrighteous decrees, and framed mischief by a law; and this they did openly, and everywhere, throughout the whole land.

Psalms 58:2 In-Context

1 Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity?

2 No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth.

3 Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.

4 Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,

5 that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be.

Cross References

• 1. Matthew 15:19
• 2. Psalms 94:20; Isaiah 10:1; Luke 6:38; Malachi 3:15