Psalms 58 · Verse 8

Psalms 58:8

As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

Psalms 58:8, King James Version

Psalms 58:8 in other translations

BSB	Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, like a woman’s stillborn child, may they never see the sun.
WEB	Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.
ASV	Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away, Like the untimely birth of a woman, that hath not seen the sun.
YLT	As a snail that melteth he goeth on, As an untimely birth of a woman, They have not seen the sun.
DARBY	Let them be as a snail that melteth as it passeth away; like the untimely birth of a woman, let them not see the sun.
BBE	Let them be like an after-birth which is turned to water and comes to an end; like the fruit of a woman who gives birth before her time, let them not see the sun.
Webster	As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

What does Psalms 58:8 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Psalms 58:8-9

8-9. Other figures of this utter ruin; the last denoting rapidity. In a shorter time than pots feel the heat of thorns on fire--

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 8 As a snail which melteth - The Chaldee reads the verse thus: "They shall melt away in their sins as water flows off; as the creeping snail that smears its track; as the untimely birth and the blind mole, which do not see the sun." The original word שבלול shablul, a snail, is either from שביל shebil, a path, because it leaves a shining path after it by emitting a portion of slime, and thus glaring the ground; and therefore might be emphatically called the pathmaker; or from ישב yashab to dwell, ב be, in, לול lul, a winding or spiral shell, which is well known to be its house, and which it always inhabits; for when it is not coiled up within this shell, it carries it with it wheresoever it goes. See Bochart. These figures need no farther explanation.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Psalms 58:6-11

David prayed that the enemies of God's church and people might be disabled to do further mischief. We may, in faith, pray against the designs of the enemies of the church. He foretells their ruin. And who knows the power of God's anger? The victories of the Just One, in his own person and that of his servants, over the enemies of man's salvation, produce a joy which springs not from revenge, but from a view of the…

Read the full comment on Psalms 58:6-11 →

Psalms 58:8 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

כְּמ֣וֹke.MolikeH3644

שַׁ֭בְּלוּלShe.be.lula snailH7642

תֶּ֣מֶסTe.mes[which] melting awayH8557

יַהֲלֹ֑ךְya.ha.Lokhit goesH1980

נֵ֥פֶלNe.fela miscarriage ofH5309

אֵ֝֗שֶׁת'E.sheta womanH802

בַּל\־bal-<of> [which] notH1077

חָ֥זוּCha.zuthey have seenH2372

שָֽׁמֶשׁ\׃Sha.mesh[the] sunH8121

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Psalms 58:8

Job 3:16
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
Ecclesiastes 6:3
If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
Psalms 37:35-36
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.
James 1:10
But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
Matthew 24:35
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

a snail.--{Shabbelool,} in Chaldee {tivlala,} the snail, is probably so called from the Arabic {balla,} to wet, moisten, because of the glutinous slime emitted from its body, by which it appears to waste itself away in its own motion; and in the same manner the wicked prove their own destruction.
pass.
37:35,36; Mt 24:35; Jas 1:10
untimely.
Job 3:16; Ec 6:3

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

Psalms 58:7
Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
Psalms 58:8
As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
Psalms 58:9
Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.

Read all of Psalms 58

Psalms 58:8 in other languages

Spanish Reina-Valera 1909	Pasen ellos como el caracol que se deslíe: como el abortivo de mujer, no vean el sol.
French Bible J.N. Darby 1885	Qu’ils se fondent comme des eaux qui s’écoulent! S’il ajuste ses flèches, qu’elles soient comme cassées!
German Elberfelder 1871	Laß sie sein gleich der Schnecke, die zerschmelzend dahingeht, gleich der Fehlgeburt eines Weibes, welche die Sonne nie erblickt hat!
Latin Clementine Vulgate	Ecce loquentur in ore suo, et gladius in labiis eorum: quoniam quis audivit?