What is the context?
The opening challenges people entrusted with judgment who instead devise injustice and distribute violence. The portrait then describes deep-rooted corruption and refusal to hear.
The snake that will not heed the charmer pictures that moral resistance. The comparison is directed toward judges who ignore justice, not toward defining the physiology of a reptile.
The birth language intensifies the indictment of an established pattern. It should not be treated as a literal report that newborn children speak deliberate lies.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley reads human judges and counselors in Saul’s setting. The USCCB text and note instead address gods, understood as powers under which human judges act. The BSB retains rulers. These are materially different readings of the opening, not evidence that every translation names the same addressees.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.