New International Version
Psalms 58:2
2No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the 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.
- English Standard Version (ESV)No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on 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 rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity? No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth. 3Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies. 4Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,
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 plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed.
- Ecclesiastes 3:16And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment—wickedness was there, in the place of justice—wickedness was there.
- Isaiah 59:4No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
- Jeremiah 22:16He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord.
- Ezekiel 22:12In you are people who accept bribes to shed blood; you take interest and make a profit from the poor. You extort unjust gain from your neighbors. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign Lord.
- Micah 3:1Then I said, “Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel. Should you not embrace justice,
- John 11:47Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs.
- Psalms 94:20Can a corrupt throne be allied with you— a throne that brings on misery by its decrees?
- Isaiah 10:1Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,
- Isaiah 26:7The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
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
New International Version — © NIV® 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica
Commentaries