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.
Psalm 58 is a raw, angry prayer about injustice. The writer — likely David — is confronting corrupt leaders who were supposed to uphold justice but instead abused their power. This verse uses two vivid and disturbing images to pray for the end of the wicked: a slug that seems to dissolve as it moves, leaving only a slimy trail, and a stillborn child who never sees the light of day. Both images pray that evil people will leave no legacy, no lasting mark, no impact on the world. Psalms like this are called "imprecatory psalms" — prayers asking God to bring judgment on enemies. They can feel shocking to modern readers, but they serve an important purpose: they give language to genuine outrage about injustice and bring that anger honestly before God, rather than suppressing it or acting on it.
God, I don't always know what to do with my anger about injustice. But the Psalms tell me I can bring it to you unfiltered — and so I do. Take my rage about what is wrong, and in your time, in your way, make things right. I trust you with what I cannot fix. Amen.
Most of us were taught to be polite in prayer. Thankful, reverent, measured. Then there's Psalm 58, which prays that the wicked dissolve like a garden slug leaving a slime trail to nowhere. It's not pretty. It's not comfortable. And it's in the Bible — which means God is apparently not offended by rage brought to him honestly. There is something important happening here. The psalmist doesn't pick up a weapon. He doesn't plot revenge. He brings his fury — unfiltered, uncurated — to God, and that is actually a form of trust: believing that God is the right place to take what you cannot resolve yourself. Maybe you have injustice in your life with no clean ending. Maybe you've watched something harmful go unpunished and you don't know what to do with that. Bring it. The Psalms give you permission to say the unsayable to God — because the alternative is letting it eat you alive, or letting it drive you somewhere you'll regret going.
Psalm 58 is called an imprecatory psalm — a prayer for God's judgment on enemies. Does reading this kind of prayer in Scripture surprise you? What does its presence in the Bible tell you about what prayer is allowed to look like?
The psalmist brings his anger to God rather than acting on it. Have you ever genuinely vented to God about something that felt deeply unjust? What happened — or what has held you back from doing that?
Jesus teaches his followers to pray for their enemies, and yet psalms like this one pray for their destruction. How do you hold both of those in tension without dismissing either one?
Is there a situation in your life where you are quietly carrying rage or grief about an injustice? How does that unaddressed anger affect the way you treat the people around you day to day?
What would it look like this week to bring something you've been too polite to say to God — and actually say it, trusting that he can handle the full weight of what you feel?
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Matthew 24:35
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
Job 3:16
Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
Job 3:11
But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
James 1:10
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.
AMP
Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
ESV
[Let them be] as a snail which melts away as it goes along, [Like] the miscarriages of a woman which never see the sun.
NASB
Like a slug melting away as it moves along, like a stillborn child, may they not see the sun.
NIV
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.
NKJV
May they be like snails that dissolve into slime, like a stillborn child who will never see the sun.
NLT
Let them dissolve into snail slime, be a miscarried fetus that never sees sunlight.
MSG