What about the people who keep their mouths shut when they hear lies? Does their silence give consent? This psalmist says that, yes, the quiet ones are just as wicked as the liars themselves.
And what about the whole lot of them? The psalmist compares this pack of liars to a big ol’ sack of shifting and coiling snakes, to cobras that can’t be controlled by even the best snake charmer.
The poet asks YHWH to foil the deeds of liars, and to destroy them in fires, so good people will shake their heads and say, “Crime doesn’t pay,” then add with a nod, “Yes, there really is a god.”