What metaphor is used in Psalm 58:8, and what does it signify? Text of Psalm 58:8 “Like a slug that melts away as it moves along, like a woman’s stillborn child, may they never see the sun.” Immediate Context Psalm 58 is an imprecatory psalm in which David calls on God to judge rulers who pervert justice. Verses 6–9 contain a rapid series of images portraying the sudden, irrevocable undoing of the wicked. Primary Metaphor Identified 1. “A slug that melts away as it moves along.” 2. In parallel, “a woman’s stillborn child, … never see the sun.” Both clauses belong to the same verse and function together, yet the question normally centers on the first image: the slug (or snail) disintegrating in its own slime. Natural Observation Behind the Figure Ancient observers noted that certain desert snails, when exposed to intense heat or salt, dehydrate and appear to liquefy, leaving a silvery trail and an empty shell. The image communicates: • Irreversible decay (once melted, the creature cannot re-form). • Self-produced demise (the melting seems to arise from its own trail). • Silent, unnoticed wasting (a slug’s dissolution happens without sound or struggle). Parallel Stillborn Image The unborn child “who never sees the sun” amplifies the thought: the wicked will be cut off before they taste prosperity, public acclaim, or the light of God’s blessing (cf. Job 3:16; Ecclesiastes 6:3-5). Both metaphors describe the negation of life before maturity. Structural Significance in Psalm 58 Verse 7 pictures the wicked vanishing “like water that runs off.” Verse 8 intensifies the motif with biological and prenatal similes. Verse 9 concludes with the sudden withering of thorn-bushes. The triplet (water, slug, stillbirth) crescendos toward utter futility. Historical Reception • Septuagint renders shabbelul with konops (“waxing away”), emphasizing dissolution. • Early Church fathers (e.g., Jerome, Augustine) viewed the verse as prophetic of the final judgment of Christ upon unrepentant persecutors. • Reformers (Calvin, Luther) stressed the pedagogical value: God teaches the faithful to wait for His vindication rather than seize revenge. Practical Application Believers find assurance that unjust power structures will not endure. The slug’s trail reminds us that sin carries its own corrosive effect; repentance is urgent before the hardening sets in (Hebrews 3:13). The stillbirth motif presses home the tragedy of spiritual sterility—life begun yet never reconciled to its Maker. Summary The metaphor in Psalm 58:8 compares the destiny of the wicked to a slug that liquefies in its own slime, paralleled with a stillborn child that never sees the sun. Both images signify the swift, inevitable, and total eradication of unrighteous power before it can bask in light or produce enduring fruit. |
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