Psalms 58

Judgment on the Wicked

¹Do you really speak what is right when silent?[#A slight emendation of the Hebrew text yields “what is right, O gods,” or “O mighty ones”]

Do you judge fairly the children of humankind?

²No, in your heart you plan injustices;

in the land you weigh out the violence of your hands.

³The wicked are estranged from the womb.

They go astray from the belly, speaking lies.

⁴Their venom is like snake venom;

They are like a deaf viper that closes its ear

⁵so that it does not hear the voice of charmers

or the skilled caster of spells.

⁶O God, break their teeth in their mouth.

Break off the fangs of the young lions, O Yahweh.

⁷Let them run away like water that runs off.

When he bends the bow, let his arrows be as though they were cut off.

⁸Let them be like a snail that melts away as it goes;

like the stillborn of woman that do not see the sun.

⁹Before your pots can feel the heat of a thornbush,

whether green or dry, he will sweep it away.

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;

he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹And people will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous.[#Hebrew “a person”; #Literally “fruit”]

Surely there is a God who judges in the land.”