Unjust Judges
refusing to hear the tune of the charmer who skillfully weaves his spell. Psalm 58:5 · Berean Standard Bible
Even if someone tries to reason with them or convince them to do better, it won't work—they're completely closed off to change.
The 'charmer' here refers to someone skilled in persuasion, someone who tries to guide dangerous people toward safety (the way a snake charmer tries to control a cobra). But these wicked rulers won't respond to eloquence, wisdom, or appeals. They've shut their ears completely.
David, extending the image of how unreachable these wicked people are.
This connects to a painful reality the Bible recognizes: sometimes people harden their hearts so completely that no argument will reach them. Later, Jesus would encounter religious leaders like this—people so committed to their own way that they refused to see truth even when it was standing in front of them.
Even the most skilled moral or spiritual instruction cannot penetrate the wicked's determined refusal to hear—they are constitutionally immune to correction.
The 'charmer' (קֹלֵם, kolem, literally 'voice-heeder' or one who works through incantatory speech) represents here the voice of wisdom, prophecy, or moral exhortation itself. The Hebrew בִּקְלוֹל־קוֹל (biqlo'l-qol) employs a doubled verbal form for emphatic negation—not merely hearing poorly but a deliberate, sustained rejection of what is heard. This builds on the serpent's closed ears from verse 4, now expanding the metaphor to encompass any possible avenue of moral transformation. Origen noted that such resistance to divine voice constitutes a kind of spiritual death-in-life, a voluntaristic imprisonment within malevolence.
The psalmist continues his diagnostic work, now exploring not merely what the wicked are but what they have chosen to refuse.
This anticipates the New Testament's haunting declaration in Hebrews 6:4-6 regarding those who have heard the heavenly gift yet turn away, as well as Jesus's lament over those unwilling to hear His voice (Matthew 23:37)—establishing the tragic reality that truth rejected becomes judgment.
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.
6O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; O LORD, tear out the fangs of the lions.
7May they vanish like water that runs off; when they draw the bow, may their arrows be blunted.
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.
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