Psalms 58

1 For the end. Destroy not: by David, for a memorial. If you do indeed speak righteousness, [then] do you judge rightly, you sons of men.

For the chief musician; set to Al Tashheth. A psalm of David. A michtam. Do you rulers speak righteousness? Do you judge uprightly, you people?

2 For you work iniquities in [your] hearts in the earth: your hands plot unrighteousness.

No, you commit wickedness in your heart; you distribute violence throughout the land with your hands.

3 Sinners have gone astray from the womb: they go astray from the belly: they speak lies.

The wicked go astray even when they are in the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

4 Their venom is like [that] of a serpent; as [that] of a deaf asp, and that stops her ears;

Their poison is like a snake's poison; they are like a deaf adder that stops up its ears,

5 which will not hear the voice of charmers, nor [heed] the charm prepared skilfully by the wise.

that pays no attention to the voice of charmers, no matter how skillful they are.

6 God has crushed their teeth in their mouth: God has broken the cheek-teeth of the lions.

Break their teeth in their mouths, God; break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.

7 They shall utterly pass away like water running through: he shall bend his bow till they shall fail.

Let them melt away as water that runs off; when they shoot their arrows, let them be as though they had no points.

8 They shall be destroyed as melted wax: the fire has fallen and they have not seen the sun.

Let them be like a snail that melts and passes away, like the untimely-born child of a woman that never sees the sunlight.

9 Before your thorns feel the white thorn, he shall swallow you up as living, as in his wrath.

Before your pots can feel the thorn's burning heat, he will take them away with a whirlwind, the green thorns and the burning thorns alike.

10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance of the ungodly: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.

The righteous will rejoice when he sees God's vengeance; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,

11 And a man shall say, Verily then there is a reward for the righteous: verily there is a God that judges them in the earth.

so that men will say, “Truly, there is a reward for the righteous person; truly there is a God who judges the earth.”