Psalms, 58
0.
0. To the choirmaster: according to 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?
1. Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the sons of men uprightly?
2. No! You devise injustice in your hearts, and with your hands you administer tyranny on the earth.
2. Nay, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.
3. Since the womb they have gone astray, the wicked, on the wrong path since their birth, with their unjust verdicts.
3. The wicked go astray from the womb, they err from their birth, speaking lies.
4. They are poisonous as any snake, deaf as an adder that blocks its ears
4. They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5. so as not to hear the magician's music, however skilful his spells.
5. so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.
6. God, break the teeth in their mouths, snap off the fangs of these young lions, Yahweh.
6. O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!
7. May they drain away like water running to waste, may they wither like trampled grass,
7. Let them vanish like water that runs away; like grass let them be trodden down and wither.
8. like the slug that melts as it moves or a still-born child that never sees the sun.
8. Let them be like the snail which dissolves into slime, like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.
9. Before they sprout thorns like the bramble, green or burnt up, may retribution whirl them away.
9. Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!
10. The upright will rejoice to see vengeance done, and will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
10. The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his 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.'
11. Men will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth."
