Psalms 58

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

For the Leader; Al-tashheth. A Psalm of David; Michtam. Do ye indeed speak as a righteous company? Do ye judge with equity the sons of men?

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

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

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

The wicked are estranged from the womb; the speakers of lies go astray as soon as they are born.

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

Their venom is like the venom of a serpent; they are like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ear;

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

Which hearkeneth not to the voice of charmers, or of the most cunning binder of spells.

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

Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the cheek-teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

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

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

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

Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away; like the untimely births of a woman, that have not seen the sun.

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

Before your pots can feel the thorns, He will sweep it away with a whirlwind, the raw and the burning alike.

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

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

11 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.

And men shall say: 'Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.'