Psaume 58:2

2 Est-ce que vous prononcez vraiment selon la justice? Fils des hommes, jugez-vous avec droiture?

Psaume 58:2 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 58:2

Yea, in heart ye work wickedness
So far were they from speaking righteousness, and judging uprightly. The heart of man is wickedness itself; it is desperately wicked, and is the shop in which all wickedness is wrought; for sinful acts are committed there as well as by the tongue and hand, as follows. This phrase also denotes their sinning; not with precipitancy, and through surprise; but with premeditation and deliberation; and their doing it heartily, with good will, and with allowance, and their continuance and constant persisting in it;

ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth;
they were guilty of acts of violence and oppression, which, of all men, judges should not be guilty of; whose business it is to plead the cause of the injured and oppressed, to right their wrongs, and to protect and defend them: these they pretended to weigh in the balance of justice and equity, and committed them under a show of righteousness; they decreed unrighteous decrees, and framed mischief by a law; and this they did openly, and everywhere, throughout the whole land.

Psaume 58:2 In-Context

1 Au maître-chantre. Mictam (cantique) de David; Al-Thascheth (ne détruis pas).
2 Est-ce que vous prononcez vraiment selon la justice? Fils des hommes, jugez-vous avec droiture?
3 Loin de là; dans votre cœur vous commettez des iniquités, vous ordonnez sur la terre la violence de vos mains.
4 Les méchants se sont détournés dès le sein maternel; les menteurs se sont égarés dès leur naissance.
5 Ils ont un venin semblable au venin du serpent; ils sont comme l'aspic sourd, qui ferme son oreille;
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.