Psalms 58:8
As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
The words are a prophetic declaration from God of the deserved punishment that will come upon the wicked, not a prayer shaped by personal feeling against them. They picture every one of the wicked passing away like a melting snail, an image of their destruction and perishing and complete disappearance. They picture them also as like a woman's untimely birth that never sees the sun.
This passing away is utter destruction, meaning they shall be no more. The soul itself dies, and both soul and body are destroyed and burned up so completely that nothing is left. They will be entirely consumed and burned up in the fire that melts the earth. The melting snail stands among many likenesses of the wicked to the most perishable and combustible materials, and together they prove complete destruction to ashes.
Likeness to such most perishable and corruptible substances proves they lose form and substance and become as though they had not been. That loss is incompatible with being preserved forever in torment in glowing and devouring fire, and shows they are not kept alive forever. Their doom is miserable and eternal, beyond what images drawn from nature can fully represent.