Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
Parallel translations
- WEB No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth.
- BSB No, in your hearts you devise injustice; with your hands you mete out violence on the earth.
- NKJV No, in heart you work wickedness; You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
- NASB No, in heart you practice injustice; On earth you clear a way for the violence of your hands.
- NLT No! You plot injustice in your hearts. You spread violence throughout the land.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David exposes corrupt judges who, far from doing justice, deliberately plan wrongdoing and dispense violence. It matters because injustice often hides behind a mask of authority.
Overview
In a psalm against unjust rulers, David pierces the pretense of those entrusted with judgment. Their hearts, not just their hands, devise injustice, weighing out violence as though it were a measured commodity. Scripture insists that God sees the inner intent behind outward acts, and that human authority is accountable to the righteous Judge who ultimately set all wrongs right at the cross and will do so at the last day.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Isa 10:1Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
- Ps 94:20Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?
- Eccl 3:16And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
- Ezek 22:27Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
- Mic 3:1–3And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?
- Mal 3:15And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
- Ps 21:11For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
- Jer 22:16–17He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.
- John 11:47–53Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.
- Isa 59:4–6None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
- Isa 26:7The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.
- Ezek 22:12In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.
- Mic 3:9–12Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 58:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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