Font Size
Psalm 58:7-9
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 58:7-9
New Catholic Bible
7 O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of these lions, O Lord.[a]
8 [b]Cause them to vanish like water that drains off;
make them wither like grass that is trampled.[c]
9 Let them melt like a snail[d] that oozes into slime
or like a stillborn child that will never see the sun.
Footnotes
- Psalm 58:7 The psalmist regards teeth as weapons of the mouths by which the wicked harass the righteous (see Ps 57:5), so he begs God to destroy them.
- Psalm 58:8 See notes on Pss 58; 35.
- Psalm 58:8 Make them wither like grass that is trampled: the meaning of the Hebrew is unclear. Another translation likens the psalmist’s foes to archers who shoot blunted arrows. “When they ready the bow, let their arrows be blunted.”
- Psalm 58:9 Snail: the ancients believed that snails dried up in the sun and evaporated.
