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Psalm 58

For the choir director: A psalm[a] of David, to be sung to the tune “Do Not Destroy!”

Justice—do you rulers[b] know the meaning of the word?
    Do you judge the people fairly?
No! You plot injustice in your hearts.
    You spread violence throughout the land.
These wicked people are born sinners;
    even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.
They spit venom like deadly snakes;
    they are like cobras that refuse to listen,
ignoring the tunes of the snake charmers,
    no matter how skillfully they play.

Break off their fangs, O God!
    Smash the jaws of these lions, O Lord!
May they disappear like water into thirsty ground.
    Make their weapons useless in their hands.[c]
May they be like snails that dissolve into slime,
    like a stillborn child who will never see the sun.
God will sweep them away, both young and old,
    faster than a pot heats over burning thorns.

10 The godly will rejoice when they see injustice avenged.
    They will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Then at last everyone will say,
    “There truly is a reward for those who live for God;
    surely there is a God who judges justly here on earth.”

Footnotes

  1. 58:Title Hebrew miktam. This may be a literary or musical term.
  2. 58:1 Or you gods.
  3. 58:7 Or Let them be trodden down and wither like grass. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

Psalm 58

To the Chief Musician; [set to the tune of] “Do Not Destroy.” A record of memorable thoughts of David.

Do you indeed in silence speak righteousness, O you mighty ones? [Or is the righteousness, rightness, and justice you should speak quite dumb?] Do you judge fairly and uprightly, O you sons of men?

No, in your heart you devise wickedness; you deal out in the land the violence of your hands.

The ungodly are perverse and estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

Their poison is like the venom of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder or asp that stops its ear,

Which listens not to the voice of charmers or of the enchanter never casting spells so cunningly.

Break their teeth, O God, in their mouths; break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord.

Let them melt away as water which runs on apace; when he aims his arrows, let them be as if they were headless or split apart.

Let them be as a snail dissolving slime as it passes on or as a festering sore which wastes away, like [the child to which] a woman gives untimely birth that has not seen the sun.

Before your pots can feel the thorns [that are placed under them for fuel], He will take them away as with a whirlwind, the green and the burning ones alike.

10 The [unyieldingly] righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11 Men will say, Surely there is a reward for the [uncompromisingly] righteous; surely there is a God Who judges on the earth.