Psalms 58

1 When you mighty men speak, you never say what is right; you never decide things about people justly [RHQ]!

To the chief Musician. 'Destroy not.' Of David. Michtam. Is righteousness indeed silent? Do ye speak it? Do ye judge with equity, ye sons of men?

2 No, in your inner beings you think only about doing what is wrong, and you commit violent crimes in this land [of Israel].

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

3 Wicked people do wrong things and tell lies from the time that they are born [DOU].

The wicked go astray from the womb; they err as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

4 God, show in the heavens how great you are! And show your glory to people all over the earth! What wicked people say [injures people like] the venom of a snake [MET]; They refuse to listen to good advice, [as though they were] cobras that were deaf [MET]!

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

5 As a result, [like a snake that does not respond when] a charmer plays a flute or when someone sings magic songs, [they do not pay attention when others rebuke them].

Which doth not hearken to the voice of enchanters, of one charming ever so wisely.

6 God, as for these enemies who [want to attack me like] young lions, break their teeth!

O God, break their teeth in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah.

7 Cause them to disappear like water disappears [in dry ground]! Cause the arrows that they shoot to have no (heads/sharp points)!

Let them melt away as waters that flow off; when he aimeth his arrows, let them be as blunted:

8 Cause them to become like snails that disappear in the slime; cause them to be like babies that are born dead!

Let them be as a snail that melteth as it passeth away; [like] the untimely birth of a woman, let them not see the sun.

9 Get rid of them [as fast as] thornbushes are blown away [after they are cut] (OR, [as fast as] a fire heats a pot over burning thorns).

Before your pots feel the thorns, green or burning, — they shall be whirled away.

10 Righteous people will rejoice when they see wicked people being punished as they deserve; they will wash their feet in the blood of wicked people.

The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his footsteps in the blood of the wicked:

11 [Then] people will say, “It is true that there is a reward for righteous people; and there is indeed a God who judges people justly here on the earth!”

And men shall say, Verily there is fruit for the righteous; verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.