< Psalms 58 >
1 When you mighty men speak, you never say what is right; you never decide things about people justly [RHQ]!
For the leader. Al tashheth. Of David. A michtam. Do you speak what is right, you gods? With equity judge you your people?
2 No, in your inner beings you think only about doing what is wrong, and you commit violent crimes in this land [of Israel].
In the land you practise iniquity – all of you; violence do you dispense with your hands.
3 Wicked people do wrong things and tell lies from the time that they are born [DOU].
The wicked go astray from the womb liars take the wrong path from their birth.
4 God, show in the heavens how great you are! And show your glory to people all over the earth! What wicked people say [injures people like] the venom of a snake [MET]; They refuse to listen to good advice, [as though they were] cobras that were deaf [MET]!
Venom have they like the venom of snakes, they are like the deaf adder that stops her ears,
5 As a result, [like a snake that does not respond when] a charmer plays a flute or when someone sings magic songs, [they do not pay attention when others rebuke them].
and refuses to listen to the voice of the charmer, or binder of spells, no matter how cunning.
6 God, as for these enemies who [want to attack me like] young lions, break their teeth!
O God, break to pieces the teeth in their mouth, tear out the great teeth of the young lions, Lord.
7 Cause them to disappear like water disappears [in dry ground]! Cause the arrows that they shoot to have no (heads/sharp points)!
May they melt away like running water! Like tender grass, cut down may they be!
8 Cause them to become like snails that disappear in the slime; cause them to be like babies that are born dead!
Like the snail that dissolves on its crawling path, like the birth untimely which sees not the sunlight.
9 Get rid of them [as fast as] thornbushes are blown away [after they are cut] (OR, [as fast as] a fire heats a pot over burning thorns).
Faster than a thorn-fire heats your pots, he will come with his tempest and sweep them away.
10 Righteous people will rejoice when they see wicked people being punished as they deserve; they will wash their feet in the blood of wicked people.
The sight of such vengeance will gladden the righteous; their feet they will wash in the blood of the wicked.
11 [Then] people will say, “It is true that there is a reward for righteous people; and there is indeed a God who judges people justly here on the earth!”
People will say, “Yes, the just are rewarded: yes, on the earth is a God who is Judge.”