What Does Psalm 58:1 Mean?
To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David. Do you indeed speak alignment, O silent ones? Do you judge straight, children of humankind?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?THE KEY
The verse puts speech and judgment on one scale: words claim righteousness only when their verdicts run straight.
THE MEANING
This question confronts you now with the gap between what you call righteous and how you judge. It asks whether your verdicts are straight, and carries the charge that they may be bent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Saying the right thing does not make your judgment righteous; the verse weighs your verdicts alongside your words.
THE ROOT
מֵישָׁרִים
meisharim
GROWS FROM
ישר
To be straight, level, or even.
The verse asks whether judgment runs straight, joining uprightness to the image of an even line. English can make “uprightly” sound like a private virtue; the root makes it a quality of the verdict itself.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight or upright.
יָשָׁר
It gives the verse’s question about judgment its image of straightness.
mishor: Level ground or evenness.
מִישׁוֹר
It shows that what is upright is also level, without a raised or lowered measure for different people.
צֶדֶק
tzedek
GROWS FROM
צדק
Alignment, justice, or rightness.
The verse places alignment in speech: righteousness is something spoken, not just claimed inwardly. The same root also names a just person and just conduct, joining the quality to the way it is lived.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: A just or aligned person.
צַדִּיק
It carries the verse’s measure of rightness into the person who speaks.
tsedaqah: Justice or right conduct.
צְדָקָה
It shows that the righteousness in the question has consequences in action, not only in speech.
תִּשְׁפְּטוּ
tishpetu
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge or decide a case.
“judge” in this verse is tishpetu. The verse asks whether judgment itself is straight, making the act of deciding the test of spoken righteousness. The root also gives the word for a judgment, linking the act to the verdict it produces.
ALSO GROWS
mishpat: Judgment or justice.
מִשְׁפָּט
It names the verdict being tested by the verse’s question.
shofet: A judge.
שֹׁפֵט
It brings the question to the person whose decisions must be straight.
THE PATTERN
Righteousness is tested where truthful speech and fair judgment meet in public life.
The one who breathes out trust declares alignment, but a witness of falsehood breathes out deceit.But let judgment roll down like waters, and alignment like a stream that never runs dry.Do not judge by what the eye sees, but judge the judgment of alignment.THE THREAD
How long do you judge crookedness, and lift up the faces of the wicked? Selah.The same Hebrew root שפט (shaphat, “judge”) anchors both verses: Psalm 58 asks whether judgment is straight, while Psalm 82 names unjust judgment directly. The second verse opens the first further by showing how judgment bends when it favors the wicked.
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