Psalms 58

1 For the Chief Musician; [set to] Al-tashheth. [A Psalm] of David: Michtam. Do ye indeed in silence speak righteousness? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?

For the end. Destroy not: by David, for a memorial. If ye do indeed speak righteousness, [then] do ye judge rightly, ye sons of men.

2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.

For ye work iniquities in [your] hearts in the earth: your hands plot unrighteousness.

3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

Sinners have gone astray from the womb: they go astray from the belly: they speak lies.

4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: [they are] like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;

Their venom is like [that] of a serpent; as [that] of a deaf asp, and that stops her ears;

5 Which hearkeneth not to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

which will not hear the voice of charmers, nor [heed] the charm prepared skillfully by the wise.

6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

God has crushed their teeth in their mouth: God has broken the cheek-teeth of the lions.

7 Let them melt away as water that runneth apace: when he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off.

They shall utterly pass away like water running through: he shall bend his bow till they shall fail.

8 [Let them be] as a snail which melteth and passeth away: [like] the untimely birth of a woman, that hath not seen the sun.

They shall be destroyed as melted wax: the fire has fallen and they have not seen the sun.

9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.

Before your thorns feel the white thorn, he shall swallow you up as living, as in his wrath.

10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance of the ungodly: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.

11 So that men shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.

And a man shall say, Verily then there is a reward for the righteous: verily there is a God that judges them in the earth.