Bible Strands
Psalms 58:3
The wicked are estranged from the womb; the liars go astray from birth.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the wicked who devise injustice and mete out violence on the earth, immediately before comparing them to venomous snakes that refuse to listen.
The words — רְשָׁעִים (re.sha.'Im) denotes wicked [people], and תָּע֥וּ (ta.'U) means they go astray, both describing a fundamental departure from right conduct.
The thread — The psalmist links this inherent corruption to the innate sinfulness of birth in Psalms 51:5, the hardened deceit of Isaiah 48:8, and the childhood foolishness addressed in Proverbs 22:15.
Why it lands — It demands recognition that moral failure originates in human nature rather than external circumstance, requiring readers to abandon self-justification and seek corrective discipline.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Cross-references
- Psalms 51:5 Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
- Isaiah 48:8 You have never heard; you have never understood; for a long time your ears have not been open. For I knew how deceitful you are; you have been called a rebel from birth.
- Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
- Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
- Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.
- Psalms 22:10 From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother’s womb You have been my God.
- Isaiah 46:3 “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth.