Bible Strands
Psalms 58:4
Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like a cobra that shuts its ears,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist describes the inherent corruption of the wicked, who are estranged from birth and persistently refuse to heed correction or divine warning.
The words — The text states their venom resembles that of a snake or a deaf cobra that shuts its ears. חֲמַת (chamat) = venom, and חֵרֵשׁ (chares) = deaf, anchor this description of unresponsive malice.
The thread — The motif of untamable, venomous speech appears in Psalms 140:3, James 3:8, and Ecclesiastes 10:11. These passages trace the same theme of corrupted words that reject charm or correction.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that moral corruption is entrenched and unresponsive to external persuasion. It requires the reader to stop expecting the hardened to change through speech alone.
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
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
Cross-references
- Psalms 140:3 They sharpen their tongues like snakes; the venom of vipers is on their lips. Selah
- James 3:8 but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
- Ecclesiastes 10:11 If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.
- Jeremiah 8:17 “For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.
- Romans 3:13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”
- Deuteronomy 32:33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
- Job 20:14 yet in his stomach his food sours into the venom of cobras within him.
- Job 20:16 He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.
- Isaiah 11:8 The infant will play by the cobra’s den, and the toddler will reach into the viper’s nest.
- Matthew 3:7 But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?