Psalms 58

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

To the Overseer. — 'Destroy not.' — A secret treasure, by David. Is it true, O dumb one, righteously ye speak? Uprightly ye judge, O 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].

Even in heart ye work iniquities, In the land the violence of your hands ye ponder.

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

The wicked have been estranged from the womb, They have erred from the belly, 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] as poison of a serpent, As a deaf asp shutting its 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 hearkeneth not to the voice of whisperers, A charmer of charms most skilful.

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, The jaw-teeth of young lions break down, 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)!

They are melted as waters, They go up and down for themselves, His arrow proceedeth as they cut themselves off.

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

As a snail that melteth he goeth on, [As] an untimely birth of a woman, They have not seen 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 discern the bramble, As well the raw as the heated He whirleth 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 rejoiceth that he hath seen vengeance, His steps he washeth 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 man saith: 'Surely fruit [is] for the righteous: Surely there is a God judging in the earth!'