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Psalm 58:8

Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.

6Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, LORD.
7Let them vanish like water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt.
8Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.
9Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns, he will sweep away the green and the burning alike.
10The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,
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← Psalm 58:7Psalm 58:9 →
Notice

The snail that melts and the child who never sees sunlight make this a stark prayer for the wicked to perish.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What, if anything, troubles you about the comparison to a child who has not seen the sun?

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What difference does addressing this demand to God make when you read its violent images?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

11 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Job 3:16or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who never saw light.Both describe a child who never saw light; Job speaks of his own suffering, while the psalm asks for the wicked to perish.
Ecclesiastes 6:3If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no …Both use a stillborn child in a stark comparison, though Ecclesiastes weighs an unsatisfied life and the psalm seeks judgment.
Job 29:17I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.Job's broken jaws and rescued prey echo the surrounding psalm's plea for God to break the teeth of those who do harm.
James 1:10and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.The melting snail and fading flower both picture passing away, though James speaks of the rich and the psalm targets the wicked.
Psalm 37:35–36I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.Both concern the wicked, though the supplied Psalm 37 verse describes their great power rather than the disappearance sought here.
Numbers 12:12Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”Both prayers use the distressing image of death at birth, but Numbers asks that someone be spared that likeness.
Job 3:11“Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?Both speak of death at birth; Job questions his own survival, while the psalm uses this image in a plea against the wicked.
Job 10:19Both connect death at birth with absence from life, though Job speaks about himself and the psalm speaks against others.
Ecclesiastes 6:5Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other.Both describe a child who has not seen the sun; Ecclesiastes speaks of rest, while the psalm uses the image to seek judgment.
Hosea 9:11As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.Both join disappearance with imagery of lost birth, though Hosea describes births prevented and the psalm compares the wicked to a stillborn child.
Matthew 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.The shared phrase is passing away: the psalm asks it for the wicked, while Jesus contrasts creation's passing with his enduring words.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. sermon or Bible study notes.

What the Bible says about anger →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Write a prayer entrusting one injustice to God's judgment

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Encouragement

The language is harsh, and the child's death is a grievous image. The prayer targets the wicked; it says nothing about the child's guilt. The demand for judgment goes to God.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 58:8. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 58 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).