English Standard Version
Psalms 58:2
2No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.
Psalms 58:2 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
- New International Version (NIV)No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth.
- New King James Version (NKJV)No, in heart you work wickedness; You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
- New Living Translation (NLT)No! You plot injustice in your hearts. You spread violence throughout the land.
Context of Psalms 58:2
1Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly? No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth. 3The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies. 4They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
Read all of Psalms 58Psalms 58:2 word by word
אַף־בְּלֵב֮ עוֹלֹ֪ת תִּפְעָ֫ל֥וּן בָּאָ֡רֶץ חֲמַ֥ס יְ֝דֵיכֶ֗ם תְּפַלֵּֽסֽוּן׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Psalms 58:2
- Psalms 21:11Though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
- Ecclesiastes 3:16Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.
- Isaiah 59:4No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
- Jeremiah 22:16He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the Lord.
- Ezekiel 22:12In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.
- Micah 3:1And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?—
- John 11:47So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.
- Psalms 94:20Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute?
- Isaiah 10:1Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression,
- Isaiah 26:7The path of the righteous is level; you make level the way of the righteous.
Commentaries on Psalms 58:2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 2Yea, in heart ye work wickedness - With their tongues they had spoken maliciously, and given evil counsel. In their hearts they meditated nothing but wickedness. And though in their hands they held the scales of justice, yet in their use of them they were balances of injustice and violence. This is the fact to which the psalmist alludes, and the figure which he uses is that of justice with her scales or balances, which, though it might be the emblem of…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 2Yea, in heart ye work wickedness - Whatever might be the outward appearances, whatever pretences they might make to just judgment, yet in fact their hearts were set on wickedness, and they were conscious of doing wrong. Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth - It is difficult to attach any meaning to this language; the translators evidently felt that they could not express the meaning of the original; and they, therefore, gave what seems to be a…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-5The administrators of justice were furthering their own interests rather than those of the needy. The absence of justice gradually resulted in a violent society.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 22. This they did not design; but weigh ... violence--or give decisions of violence. Weigh is a figure to express the acts of judges. in the earth--publicly.Read the comment
Topics related to Psalms 58:2
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Psalms 58
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- The Treasury of David
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries