< Psalms 58 >
1 Unto the end, destroy not, for David, for an inscription of a title. If in very deed you speak justice: judge right things, ye sons of men.
For the Chief Musician; [set to] Al-tashheth. [A Psalm] of David. Michtam. Do ye indeed in silence speak righteousness? Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2 For in your heart you work iniquity: your hands forge injustice in the earth.
Nay, in heart ye work wickedness; Ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb: they have spoken false things.
The wicked are estranged from the womb: They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4 Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears:
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: [They are] like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear,
5 Which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the wizard that charmeth wisely.
Which hearkeneth not to the voice of charmers, Charming never so wisely.
6 God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouth: the Lord shall break the grinders of the lions.
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah.
7 They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he hath bent his bow till they be weakened.
Let them melt away as water that runneth apace: When he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off.
8 Like wax that melteth they shall be taken away: fire hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun.
[Let them be] as a snail which melteth and passeth away, [Like] the untimely birth of a woman, that hath not seen the sun.
9 Before your thorns could know the brier; he swalloweth them up, as alive, in his wrath.
Before your pots can feel the thorns, He will take them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.
10 The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.
The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;
11 And man shall say: If indeed there be fruit to the just: there is indeed a God that judgeth them on the earth.
So that men shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.