< Psalms 58 >
1 To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
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 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
For in your heart you work iniquity: your hands forge injustice in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
The wicked are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb: they have spoken false things.
4 Their poison [is] like the poison of a serpent: [they are] like the deaf adder [that] stoppeth her ear;
Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears:
5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
Which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the wizard that charmeth wisely.
6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouth: the Lord shall break the grinders of the lions.
7 Let them melt away as waters [which] run continually: [when] he bendeth [his bow to shoot] his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he hath bent his bow till they be weakened.
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.
Like wax that melteth they shall be taken away: fire hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in [his] wrath.
Before your thorns could know the brier; he swalloweth them up, as alive, in his wrath.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his 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 So that a man shall say, Verily [there is] a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
And man shall say: If indeed there be fruit to the just: there is indeed a God that judgeth them on the earth.