Psalms, 58

1. For the leader. Do not destroy. A miktam of David.

1. [For the choirmaster Tune: 'Do not destroy' Of David In a quiet voice] Divine as you are, do you truly give upright verdicts? do you judge fairly the children of Adam?

2. Do you indeed pronounce justice, O gods; do you judge mortals fairly?

2. No! You devise injustice in your hearts, and with your hands you administer tyranny on the earth.

3. No, you freely engage in crime; your hands dispense violence to the earth.

3. Since the womb they have gone astray, the wicked, on the wrong path since their birth, with their unjust verdicts.

4. The wicked have been corrupt since birth; liars from the womb, they have gone astray.

4. They are poisonous as any snake, deaf as an adder that blocks its ears

5. Their poison is like the poison of a snake, like that of a serpent stopping its ears,

5. so as not to hear the magician's music, however skilful his spells.

6. So as not to hear the voice of the charmer who casts such cunning spells.

6. God, break the teeth in their mouths, snap off the fangs of these young lions, Yahweh.

7. O God, smash the teeth in their mouths; break the jaw-teeth of these lions, LORD!

7. May they drain away like water running to waste, may they wither like trampled grass,

8. Make them vanish like water flowing away; trodden down, let them wither like grass.

8. like the slug that melts as it moves or a still-born child that never sees the sun.

9. Let them dissolve like a snail that oozes away, like an untimely birth that never sees the sun.

9. Before they sprout thorns like the bramble, green or burnt up, may retribution whirl them away.

10. Suddenly, like brambles or thistles, have the whirlwind snatch them away.

10. The upright will rejoice to see vengeance done, and will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11. Then the just shall rejoice to see the vengeance and bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

11. 'So', people will say, 'the upright does have a reward; there is a God to dispense justice on earth.'

12. Then it will be said: "Truly there is a reward for the just; there is a God who is judge on earth!"

12.