Psalms 58
1 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?
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 Aye! ye all do work, perversity, —Throughout the land, your hands, weigh out, violence!
For in your heart you work iniquity: your hands forge injustice in the earth.
3 Lawless men have been estranged from birth, They have gone astray from their nativity, speaking falsehood;
The wicked are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb: they have spoken false things.
4 Their poison, is like unto the poison of a serpent, Like the deaf adder, that stoppeth his ear;
Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears:
5 That will not hearken to the voice of whisperers, Though the wise one try to bind him with spells.
Which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the wizard that charmeth wisely.
6 O God! break away their teeth in their mouth, The biters of the young lions, knock thou out, O Yahweh!
God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouth: the Lord shall break the grinders of the lions.
7 Let such men flow away like waters that disperse themselves: He prepareth his arrow, Like [grass] let them be cut down:
They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he hath bent his bow till they be weakened.
8 Like a snail, which melteth away as it goeth, An untimely birth of a woman, which hath not seen 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 kettles can perceive the [kindled] bramble, Be he green or be he withered, he shall be swept away.
Before your thorns could know the brier; he swalloweth them up, as alive, in his wrath.
10 The righteous man will rejoice when he hath seen an avenging, His feet, will he bathe in the blood of the lawless one: —
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 son of earth may say—Surely there is fruit for the righteous man! Surely there are gods who judge 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.
