Ps. 58.7-9 (curse answering condemnation)

O God / smash their teeth / in the mouth
break off / their lion-fangs / O Yhwh
Let their strength / drain away / like water / that flows away
let them shoot their arrows / without force
Let them be / like a snail / that melts as it goes
like an aborted fetus / which never saw / the sun
Before their pots / can feel the heat of / a thorn bush
let him / sweep them away alive / as in a fury of a storm. 

As we indicated in our previous reflections, these curses must be placed within the context of the condemnations in verses 3-5. When seen alongside them what we perceive is the fact that they ‘answer’ the condemnations. Here is how it works—verse 5 ended with the cobra chasing its prey, regardless of the spells of the snake-charmers. Here, the “teeth” and “lion-fangs” are to be destroyed—the curse is meant to counteract and rob the ‘snake’ of their ability to deliver the “snake venom” of injustice. It is a marvelous chiasm/answering of verse 5. Furthermore, on a deeper level, to ‘smash a person’s teeth’ is used in other psalms, the point of which is to cease their ability to speak (often, it is their ability to taunt the psalmist). Here, the first verse makes clear that the ‘speaking’ is not a taunt but the twisted justice of the judges. That is their venom, their bite. The psalmist is therefore, rather brilliantly, showing by way of thematic coherence (with verses 1 and 5: speech and snake-teeth) as well as formally (by way of chiasm/answer) how the curse is designed to render these judges impotent in their ability to alter the divine justice they have been entrusted with. This same approach is seen in the immediately following curse that their “strength drain away”. In verses 4-5, the snake-judges are portrayed as stopping their ears to the spells of snake charmers (we saw, the pleas for justice). They had a resolute and disciplined ability to pursue their injustice with unwavering stability and strength. Here, that strength is ‘answered’ by the effect of the curse: that they would lose all of their strength and that what they “aim for” (“the way in the land, for the violence of your hands”, vs. 2) will not be hit due to their ever-decreasing power (“let them shoot their arrows, without force”). The next curse is almost comic in its juxtaposition to the condemnation. Here, we find the incredibly strong and terror-inducing cobra reduced to that of a “snail that melts as it goes”. The curse, as with so many other ones, is intended to be shame-inducing in its effect (i.e., it is a public judgment that ‘answers’ the very public nature of the judges; if they intended to exploit a public office, they will be shamed publicly). The astonishingly vivid “curse of the fetus” follows. When removed from its context it is disturbing. However, without removing any of its imagistic vitality, when we see it as an ‘answer’ to the condemnation we find this: “such wicked ones are loathsome from birth, wayward liars from the womb” (vs. 3). The curse is clearly intended as a response/answer to this all-consuming nature of their wickedness. Just as their power (dealing out justice) is one that is foundational to the community, so is their sin/depravity to be understood as all-consuming/foundational to them. It is for that reason that we see here that the psalmist seeks a curse imposed on them as devastating and consuming as the extent of their waywardness. The curse ‘chases down’ their sin, to its very nub in order to extricate it from the community and restore it (the community) to health. The final curse follows much the same pattern, although in its chronological reference, it deepens the psalm. Following immediately on the heels of the “curse of the fetus” (end it before it even begins), we find this curse that seeks to end it in midstream. The cobra is already seeking its prey, oblivious to the calls for justice. It is steadfast in its pursuit and, importantly, very constant. It can’t be sidetracked. It is this sense of constancy that this curse answers. For as ‘constant’ as they seem is as sudden to be their downfall. The thorn-bush ignites incredibly quickly. To be intercepted between its ignition and its warmth is to be, effectively, not on simultaneous but to be completely without warning. Furthermore, it is often the case in the geographical location of the psalm to be ‘swept away’ in the middle of the (sunny) day, without warning due to astonishingly fast and profound floods. It is this suddenness that the psalmist is appealing to in order to counteract/answer the seemingly unwavering and constant nature of the cobra-judges. It is a rather interesting turn of images that the psalmist appeals to both fire (lighting of the thorn-bush) and water (wash away) in order to describe the absolute, overpowering and sudden nature of the curse/judgment—they cannot escape.