< 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.
Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2 For you work iniquities in [your] hearts in the earth: your hands plot unrighteousness.
Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 Sinners have gone astray from the womb: they go astray from the belly: they speak lies.
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, 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 the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
5 which will not hear the voice of charmers, nor [heed] the charm prepared skillfully by the wise.
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
6 God has crushed their teeth in their mouth: God has broken the cheek-teeth of the lions.
Break their teeth, O Elohim, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O YHWH.
7 They shall utterly pass away like water running through: he shall bend his bow till they shall fail.
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.
8 They shall be destroyed as melted wax: the fire has fallen and they have not seen the sun.
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.
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 thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
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 shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall 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 a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is an Elohim that judgeth in the earth.

< Psalms 58 >