Psalm 58:3

Psalm 58:3, in plain English

David is saying that these wicked people have been fundamentally crooked from the very beginning—their nature has always been bent toward evil.

Why it's here

You might read this and think David is saying they were born evil and have no choice, but that's not quite right. He's emphasizing how deep-rooted and persistent their wickedness is—it's not a recent problem or a phase they're going through. From infancy, they've chosen to go the wrong direction.

Who's speaking

David, describing the essential character of the wicked people he's confronting.

Where it sits in the story

This echoes the biblical understanding of human nature—we're all born with a tendency to turn away from God (Romans 3:23). But what makes these particular people different is that they've never turned back toward righteousness. They've just kept walking away.

The scholarly reading

The psalmist asserts that the wicked possess an inborn, almost constitutional orientation toward evil—they have been alienated from righteousness since conception itself.

Language and setting

The term נִזְרוּ (nizru, 'estranged' or 'separated') derives from the root זָרָה (zarah), carrying connotations of alienation and severance. This verse engages with what we might call forensic anthropology—the question of whether wickedness is acquired through circumstance or endemic to one's essential nature. The phrase 'from the womb' (מִן־רֶחֶם, min-rechem) echoes Job 31:18 and invokes the medical-theological language of formation and nativity. Medieval commentators like Maimonides grappled with whether this represents moral determinism or simply describes the observable pattern of the wicked, while Calvin's doctrine of total depravity would later find support in such language.

Voice

The psalmist now moves beyond observation of outward corruption to make a diagnosis about constitutional orientation—positioning himself within the theodicean tradition that must account for evil's seeming inevitability.

Significance

This reflects the ancient Near Eastern and biblical struggle with the problem of evil's origins: if God is sovereign and good, whence comes systematic wickedness? The psalmist anticipates both the Book of Job's anguished questioning and the Apostle Paul's wrestling with predestination and human responsibility in Romans 9.

1Do you indeed speak justly, O rulers? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men?

2No, in your hearts you devise injustice; with your hands you mete out violence on the earth.

3The wicked are estranged from the womb; the liars go astray from birth.

4Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like a cobra that shuts its ears,

5refusing to hear the tune of the charmer who skillfully weaves his spell.

Read all of Psalm 58 — A confrontation with rulers who deal out violence instead of justice. David prays for the kind of divine intervention that makes the world right.