Fathers

Psalms 58

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Do you indeed speak righteousness, silent ones? Do you judge blamelessly, you sons of men? No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a snake, like a deaf cobra that stops its ear, which doesn’t listen to the voice of charmers, no matter how skillful the charmer may be. Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh. Let them vanish like water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt. Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun. Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns, he will sweep away the green and the burning alike. The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so that men shall say, “Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous. Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 58:3

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"Alienated are sinners from the womb, they have gone astray from the belly, they have spoken false things" [Psalm 58:3]. And when iniquity they speak, false things they speak; because deceitful is iniquity: and when justice they speak, false things they speak; because one thing with mouth they profess, another thing in heart they conceal. "Alienated are sinners from the womb." What is this? …

Exposition on Psalm 58 ↗

Jerome

Atticus: I grant you that they are just men, but I cannot agree with you at all that they are without sin. For I say that humanity can be without fault, which in Greek is called kakia ["wickedness"], but I deny that it is anamartētos ["faultless"], that is to say sine peccato ["without sin"]. …

Against the Pelagians 2.4 ↗