No, in heart you practice injustice; On earth you clear a way for the violence of your hands.
Parallel translations
- WEB No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth.
- KJV Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh 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.
- 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 to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;
- Ps 94:20Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you, which brings about mischief by statute?
- Eccl 3:16Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.
- Ezek 22:27Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.
- Mic 3:1–3I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?
- Mal 3:15Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’
- Ps 21:11For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
- Jer 22:16–17He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Wasn’t this to know me?” says Yahweh.
- John 11:47–53The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, “What are we doing? For this man does many signs.
- Isa 59:4–6No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and give birth to iniquity.
- Isa 26:7The way of the just is uprightness. You who are upright make the path of the righteous level.
- Ezek 22:12In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- Mic 3:9–12Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, 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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