Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.
Snails melt as they travel.
Zoology
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The cited passage
What current science says
Snails don't melt. The slimy trail they leave behind is mucus that helps them glide smoothly and protects their soft bodies from scraping - it's not their body dissolving. Snails have been around for over 500 million years; they obviously don't melt away.
What the text says
Psalms 58:8 likens the wicked to 'a snail which melteth' as it moves along - depicting a snail as dissolving away while it travels.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.