Psalms 58
1 For the music director. According to “Do Not Destroy.” A psalm (miktam) of David. You leaders, do you really say what is right? Do you judge people fairly?
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.
2 No, for in your minds you plan evil. You cause violence everywhere!
For in your heart you work iniquity: your hands forge injustice in the earth.
3 The wicked are sinners from birth; from the moment they're born they tell lies.
The wicked are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb: they have spoken false things.
4 They have venom like that of a poisonous snake, and just like a cobra they stop listening,
Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears:
5 refusing to hear the voice of the snake charmers or the spellbinders.
Which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the wizard that charmeth wisely.
6 God, break their teeth, and smash the jaws of these lions, Lord.
God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouth: the Lord shall break the grinders of the lions.
7 May they vanish like water that flows away; when they shoot their arrows may they miss their mark.
They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he hath bent his bow till they be weakened.
8 May they be like the slime of snails that dissolves away, like a stillborn child that never saw the light of day.
Like wax that melteth they shall be taken away: fire hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun.
9 Before the cooking pot is hot from burning thorns, whether fresh or dry, God will blow them away.
Before your thorns could know the brier; he swalloweth them up, as alive, in his wrath.
10 Those who live right will be happy when they see there is punishment; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.
11 They will say, “There is definitely a reward for those who live right; there is certainly a God who judges fairly on earth.”
And man shall say: If indeed there be fruit to the just: there is indeed a God that judgeth them on the earth.
