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 leader. Al tashheth. Of David. A michtam. Do you speak what is right, you gods? With equity judge you your people?
2 For in your heart you work iniquity: your hands forge injustice in the earth.
In the land you practise iniquity – all of you; violence do you dispense with your hands.
3 The wicked are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb: they have spoken false things.
The wicked go astray from the womb liars take the wrong path from their birth.
4 Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears:
Venom have they like the venom of snakes, they are like the deaf adder that stops her ears,
5 Which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the wizard that charmeth wisely.
and refuses to listen to the voice of the charmer, or binder of spells, no matter how cunning.
6 God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouth: the Lord shall break the grinders of the lions.
O God, break to pieces the teeth in their mouth, tear out the great teeth of the young lions, Lord.
7 They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he hath bent his bow till they be weakened.
May they melt away like running water! Like tender grass, cut down may they be!
8 Like wax that melteth they shall be taken away: fire hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun.
Like the snail that dissolves on its crawling path, like the birth untimely which sees not the sunlight.
9 Before your thorns could know the brier; he swalloweth them up, as alive, in his wrath.
Faster than a thorn-fire heats your pots, he will come with his tempest and sweep them away.
10 The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.
The sight of such vengeance will gladden the righteous; their feet they will wash 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.
People will say, ‘Yes, the just are rewarded: yes, on the earth is a God who is Judge.’
