Psalms 58:1

1. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation Much perplexity and doubt attend the rendering of this clause. The difficulty lies in the

אלם , translated in the vocative, “O congregation.” Its verbal root signifies, to bind, to grow dumb, as if tongue-tied; and the noun signifies dumbness, silence, and so it is used in Psalm lvi, title, the only other place of its occurrence. Our English Version derives the idea of “congregation” from the signification to bind, which is not satisfactory. The address is not to the “congregation,” but to the judges. No light of criticism has hitherto given a smooth sense to the passage. If we retain the word in question, and not, as many, throw it out as an interpolation, we may retain the radical sense to bind, and consider the judges or leaders of the nation addressed as binders of the people by their oppressive decrees, or as confederates arrayed against justice; or, rejecting the wordas an interpolation, read, “Do ye indeed decree justice?” ( Delitzsch;) or, “Are ye indeed dumb [when] ye [should] speak righteousness [and] judge equitably?” Alexander. It would seem safer to just criticism to retain the word in the text.