Psalms 58

Psalm 58

Prayer for Vengeance

1Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?[#Ps 82.2]

Do you judge people fairly?

2No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;[#Ps 94.20; Mal 3.15]

your hands deal out violence on earth.

3The wicked go astray from the womb;[#Ps 51.5; 53.3; Isa 48.8]

they err from their birth, speaking lies.

4They have venom like the venom of a serpent,[#Ps 140.3; Eccl 10.11]

like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

5so that it does not hear the voice of charmers[#Ps 81.11]

or of the cunning enchanter.

6O God, break the teeth in their mouths;[#Job 4.10; Ps 3.7]

tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord !

7Let them vanish like water that runs away;[#Josh 7.5; Ps 64.3; 112.10]

like grass let them be trodden down and wither.

8Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,[#Job 3.16]

like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.

9Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,[#Ps 118.12; Prov 10.25]

whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

10The righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done;[#Ps 64.10; 68.23; 91.8]

they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

11People will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;[#Ps 9.8; 18.20]

surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ