The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
Parallel translations
- KJV The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
- BSB The wicked are estranged from the womb; the liars go astray from birth.
- NKJV The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
- NASB The wicked have turned away from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.
- NLT These wicked people are born sinners; even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.
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 traces the wicked's sin to its root, declaring they have been estranged from God and prone to deceit from birth. It underscores the depth and universality of human corruption.
Overview
This verse describes the deep-seated nature of sin, present from the very beginning of life rather than merely learned. It echoes the Bible's wider teaching on original sin, where every heart is bent toward wrong from conception. Such a diagnosis drives us to the gospel, for only a new birth in Christ can remedy a corruption that runs so deep.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ps 51:5Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.
- Isa 48:8Yes, you didn’t hear; yes, you didn’t know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.
- Prov 22:15Folly is bound up in the heart of a child: the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
- Job 15:14What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
- Eph 2:3among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
- Ps 22:10I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb. You are my God since my mother bore me.
- Isa 46:3“Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 58:3 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.