“The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.”
The depiction of the wicked as estranged from the womb, speaking lies from birth, articulates a doctrine of total corruption that renders the wicked fundamentally alien from righteousness. The language suggests that wickedness is not accidental or circumstantial but intrinsic to the being of the wicked; they are constitutionally inclined toward falsehood. The reference to birth indicates that this is not acquired corruption but an inborn condition; the wicked are cast in a mold that produces lies and violence. This verse establishes the incorrigibility of the wicked: their corruption is fundamental and not amenable to reform.
Church Fathers on Psalms 58:3
1. The words which we have sung must be rather hearkened to by us, than proclaimed. For to all men as it were in an assemblage of mankind, the Truth cries, “If truly indeed justice ye speak, judge right things, you sons of men” Psalm 57:1. For to what unjust man is it not an easy thing to speak justice? Or what man if questioned about justice, when he has not a cause, would not easily answer what is just? Inasmuch as the hand of our Maker in our very hearts has written this…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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