Psalms 58
1 For the chief musician; set to Al Tashheth. A psalm of David. A michtam. Do you rulers speak righteousness? Do you judge uprightly, you people?
TO THE OVERSEER. “DO NOT DESTROY.” A MIKTAM OF DAVID. Is it true, O silent one, that you speak righteously? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men?
2 No, you commit wickedness in your heart; you distribute violence throughout the land with your hands.
Even in heart you work iniquities, In the land you ponder the violence of your hands.
3 The wicked go astray even when they are in the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
The wicked have been estranged from the womb, They have erred from the belly, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like a snake's poison; they are like a deaf adder that stops up its ears,
Their poison [is] as poison of a serpent, As a deaf cobra shutting its ear,
5 that pays no attention to the voice of charmers, no matter how skillful they are.
Which does not listen to the voice of whisperers, A charmer of most skillful charms.
6 Break their teeth in their mouths, God; break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.
O God, break their teeth in their mouth, Break down the jaw-teeth of young lions, O YHWH.
7 Let them melt away as water that runs off; when they shoot their arrows, let them be as though they had no points.
They are melted as waters, They go up and down for themselves, His arrow proceeds as they cut themselves off.
8 Let them be like a snail that melts and passes away, like the untimely-born child of a woman that never sees the sunlight.
He goes on as a snail that melts, [As] an untimely birth of a woman, They have not seen the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorn's burning heat, he will take them away with a whirlwind, the green thorns and the burning thorns alike.
Before your pots discern the bramble, As living, He whirls away in His burning anger.
10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees God's vengeance; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,
The righteous rejoices that he has seen vengeance, He washes his steps in the blood of the wicked.
11 so that men will say, “Truly, there is a reward for the righteous person; truly there is a God who judges the earth.”
And man says: “Surely fruit [is] for the righteous: Surely there is a God judging in the earth!”
