Psalms 58:8 Meaning Let Them Be Like a Snail

Byāpāda: Ill will Ill will is the mind's push to see another harmed. Asking that a man thin down to a wet trail on a hot stone and be gone is that push given its full voice, rising here from the sight of judges who weigh out violence with their own hands. The wish scalds whoever holds it first, the way a coal picked up to throw burns the palm long before it reaches anyone else.

Kamma: Action and its fruit Deeds ripen according to their own kind. A judge who deals out crooked verdicts needs no curse laid on him to come apart; the crooked dealing is already the seed in the ground, and the harvest arrives whether or not anyone sings for it. Cursing him only plants a second crop, in the singer's own field, which will also come up in season.

Anicca: Impermanence Whatever is put together comes apart. The snail shrinking as it crawls, its track drying behind it on the rock, is the plain description of every body in the song, the singer's along with the judges'. To wish dissolution on an enemy is to ask for what time already hands out to everyone, at no charge and on no one's request.

Maraṇasati: Keeping death in view Holding one's own end in mind, steadily and without alarm. The child who never opened its eyes on the sun is flung out as a curse, yet the same shortness rests on the one flinging it: any life can close before the light gets in. Held up to your own face, that stillborn image turns from a weapon into a mirror, and the quarrel with the courts shrinks back to its true size.

Mettā: Goodwill Goodwill is the wish that beings be well, and it is trained on the hard cases first. Reverse the petition word for word and it becomes: may he see the sun, may his eyes open, may he not pass away in the dark of his own dealing. Enmity has never yet been ended by more enmity, and the singer's own rest depends on whether the curse gets set down.