< 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?
2 No, you commit wickedness in your heart; you distribute violence throughout the land with your hands.
3 The wicked go astray even when they are in the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like a snake's poison; they are like a deaf adder that stops up its ears,
5 that pays no attention to the voice of charmers, no matter how skillful they are.
6 Break their teeth in their mouths, God; break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.
7 Let them melt away as water that runs off; when they shoot their arrows, let them be as though they had no points.
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.
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.
10 The righteous will rejoice when he sees God's vengeance; he will wash his feet 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.”