It means they're born with a tendency to sin early....we know also via the New Testament that they have a sin nature.
These next few stanzas of the psalm are also full of simile and metaphor. Am I to assume this is a psalm against wicked lions with fangs?
To the Chief Musician. Set to "Do Not Destroy." A Michtam of David.
1 [1] Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones?
Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men?
2No, in heart you work wickedness;
You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
3The wicked are estranged from the womb;
They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4Their poison is like the poison of a serpent;
They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear,
5Which will not heed the voice of charmers,
Charming ever so skillfully.
6Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!
Break out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!
7Let them flow away as waters which run continually;
When he bends his bow,
Let his arrows be as if cut in pieces.
8Let 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.
It means they're born with a tendency to sin early....we know also via the New Testament that they have a sin nature.No, the Verse doesn't say that at all. The Verse doesn't even hint at some vague, amorphous "tendency to sin", you just interpolated that in there because you WANT it to be there, even though it ISN'T there.
Psalm 58:3 is a Verse about Infants, and Sin. So let's just submit the matter to an acid test of spiritual honesty:
- A.) Psalm 58:3 teaches that Infants ARE SINNERS.
- B.) Psalm 58:3 teaches that Infants ARE NOT SINNERS.
It's either one, or the other. To claim that it is merely teaching a "tendency to sin", is to claim that the Verse is teaching "B".
So, which is it, Xzins: A, or B?