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.
To the Chief Musician. "Do not Destroy." A precious Psalm, of David. Are ye, indeed, silent [when] righteousness, ye should speak? When, with equity, ye should judge, O ye sons of men?
2 For you work iniquities in [your] hearts in the earth: your hands plot unrighteousness.
Aye! ye all do work, perversity, —Throughout the land, your hands, weigh out, violence!
3 Sinners have gone astray from the womb: they go astray from the belly: they speak lies.
Lawless men have been estranged from birth, They have gone astray from their nativity, speaking falsehood;
4 Their venom is like [that] of a serpent; as [that] of a deaf asp, and that stops her ears;
Their poison, is like unto the poison of a serpent, Like the deaf adder, that stoppeth his ear;
5 which will not hear the voice of charmers, nor [heed] the charm prepared skillfully by the wise.
That will not hearken to the voice of whisperers, Though the wise one try to bind him with spells.
6 God has crushed their teeth in their mouth: God has broken the cheek-teeth of the lions.
O God! break away their teeth in their mouth, The biters of the young lions, knock thou out, O Yahweh!
7 They shall utterly pass away like water running through: he shall bend his bow till they shall fail.
Let such men flow away like waters that disperse themselves: He prepareth his arrow, Like [grass] let them be cut down:
8 They shall be destroyed as melted wax: the fire has fallen and they have not seen the sun.
Like a snail, which melteth away as it goeth, An untimely birth of a woman, which hath not seen the sun:
9 Before your thorns feel the white thorn, he shall swallow you up as living, as in his wrath.
Before your kettles can perceive the [kindled] bramble, Be he green or be he withered, he shall be swept away.
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 man will rejoice when he hath seen an avenging, His feet, will he bathe in the blood of the lawless one: —
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 son of earth may say—Surely there is fruit for the righteous man! Surely there are gods who judge in the earth!
