Psalms 58:8

Easy-to-Read Version

May they be like snails melting away as they move. May they be like a baby born dead, who never saw the light of day.

Parallel Translations

New Living Translation
May they be like snails that dissolve into slime, like a stillborn child who will never see the sun.

English Revised Version
Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that hath not seen the sun.

Update Bible Version
[Let them be] as a snail which melts and passes away, [Like] the untimely birth of a woman, that has not seen the sun.

New Century Version
Let them be like snails that melt as they move. Let them be like a child born dead who never saw the sun.

New English Translation
Let them be like a snail that melts away as it moves along! Let them be like stillborn babies that never see the sun!

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

World English Bible
Let them be as a snail which melts and passes away, Like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.

Amplified Bible
Let them be as a snail which melts away (secretes slime) as it goes along, Like the miscarriage of a woman which never sees the sun.

English Standard Version
Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
As wexe that fletith awei, thei schulen be takun awei; fier felle aboue, and thei siyen not the sunne.

Berean Standard Bible
Like a slug that dissolves in its slime, like a woman's stillborn child, may they never see the sun.

Contemporary English Version
Let them dry up like snails or be like a child that dies before seeing the sun.

American Standard Version
Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away, Like the untimely birth of a woman, that hath not seen the sun.

Bible in Basic English
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.

Complete Jewish Bible
May they vanish like water that drains away. May their arrows be blunted when they aim their bows.

Darby Translation
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.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Let them melt away as water that runneth apace;

King James Version (1611)
As a snaile which melteth, let euery one of them passe away: like the vntimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sunne.

New Life Bible
Let them be like a snail that melts away as it goes. Like a baby born dead, may they never see the sun.

New Revised Standard
Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime; like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Let them consume like a snayle that melteth, and like the vntimely fruite of a woman, that hath not seene the sunne.

George Lamsa Translation
Like the wax that melts, and drips before the fire, let them be destroyed: fire has fallen from heaven and they did not see; the light of truth has been given and they did not understand.

Good News Translation
May they be like snails that dissolve into slime; may they be like a baby born dead that never sees the light.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Like a snail, which melteth away as it goeth, An untimely birth of a woman, which hath not seen the sun:

Douay-Rheims Bible
(57-9) Like wax that melteth they shall be taken away: fire hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun.

Revised Standard Version
Let them be like the snail which dissolves into slime, like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Let them creepe away lyke a snayle that foorthwith consumeth to naught: or lyke the vntimely fruite of a woman, let them not see the sunne.

Christian Standard Bible®
Like a slug that moves along in slime,like a woman’s miscarried child,may they not see the sun.

Hebrew Names Version
Let them be as a snail which melts and passes away, Like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.

King James Version
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.

Lexham English Bible
Let them be like a snail that melts away as it goes; like the stillborn of woman that do not see the sun.

Literal Translation
Let them be as a snail that goes into melting, a miscarriage of a woman; they do not see the sun.

Young's Literal Translation
As a snail that melteth he goeth on, [As] an untimely birth of a woman, They have not seen the sun.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Let the cosume awaye like a snale, & like the vntymely frute of a woman, and let them not se the Sonne.

New American Standard Bible
May they be like a snail which goes along in slime, Like the miscarriage of a woman that never sees the sun.

New King James Version
Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes, Like a stillborn child of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Let them be as a snail which melts away as it goes along, Like the miscarriages of a woman which never see the sun.

Legacy Standard Bible
Let them be as a snail which melts away as it goes along,Like the miscarriages of a woman which never behold the sun.

Contextual Overview

⁶ God, they are like lions. So, Lord , break their teeth. ⁷ May they disappear like water down a drain. May they be crushed like weeds on a path. ⁸ May they be like snails melting away as they move. May they be like a baby born dead, who never saw the light of day. ⁹ May they be destroyed suddenly, like the thorns that are burned to quickly heat a pot. ¹⁰ Good people will be happy when they see the wicked getting the punishment they deserve. They will feel like soldiers walking through the blood of their enemies! ¹¹ Then people will say, "Good people really are rewarded. Yes, there is a God judging the world!"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure 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: Psalms 37:35, Psalms 37:36, Matthew 24:35, James 1:10

untimely: Job 3:16, Ecclesiastes 6:3

Reciprocal: Numbers 12:12 - of whom Job 3:11 - died I Job 10:19 - General Job 24:19 - so doth Job 29:17 - I brake Psalms 112:10 - melt Ecclesiastes 6:5 - this Hosea 9:11 - from the birth

Gill's Notes on the Bible

As a snail [which] melteth, let [everyone of them] pass away,.... As a snail when it comes out of its shell liquefies, drops its moisture, and with it makes a "path", from whence it has its name

שבלול, in the Hebrew language; and so the Targum here,

"as the snail moistens its way;''

which moistness it gradually exhausts, and melts away, and dies: so the psalmist prays that everyone of his enemies might die in like manner. Some think reference is had to the snail's putting out its horns to no purpose when in danger, and apply it to the vain threatenings of the wicked; a strange difference this, between a roaring young lion,

Psalms 58:6, and a melting snail. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, render it, "as wax [which] melteth": see

Psalms 68:2;

[like] the untimely birth of a woman, [that] they may not see the sun; see Job 3:16. The Targum is,

"as an abortive and a mole, which are blind and see not the sun.''

So Jarchi renders it a "mole", agreeably to the Talmud g. Or, "let them not see the sun" h; let them die, and never see the sun in the firmament any more; Christ, the sun of righteousness; nor enjoy the favour of God, and the light of his countenance; nor have the light of life, or eternal glory and happiness; see Psalms 49:19.

g T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 6. 2. h בל חזו שמש "ne videant solem", Pagninus, Montanus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away - Or rather, As the snail which melteth as it goes; that is, which leaves a slimy trail as it moves along, and thus melts away the more as it advances, until at length it dies. Gesenius, Lexicon. The allusion is to what seems to occur to the snail; it seems to melt or to be dissolved as it moves along; or seems to leave a part of itself in the slime which flows from it.

Like the untimely birth of a woman - The Hebrew word means literally “that which falls from a woman;” and hence, the word is used to denote an abortion. The prayer is, that they might utterly pass away; that they might become like those who never had real life; that their power might wholly disappear.

That they may not see the sun - May not be among the living. Compare the notes at Job 3:16.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 58:8. 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.