Chapter 58

¹{To the chief Musician. `Destroy not.` Of David. Michtam.} Is righteousness indeed silent? Do ye speak it? Do ye judge with equity, ye sons of men? ²Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth. ³The wicked go astray from the womb; they err as soon as they are born, speaking lies. ⁴Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: [they are] like the deaf adder which stoppeth her ear; ⁵Which doth not hearken to the voice of enchanters, of one charming ever so wisely. ⁶O God, break their teeth in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah. ⁷Let them melt away as waters that flow off; when he aimeth his arrows, let them be as blunted: ⁸Let them be as a snail that melteth as it passeth away; [like] the untimely birth of a woman, let them not see the sun. ⁹Before your pots feel the thorns, green or burning, -- they shall be whirled away. ¹⁰The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his footsteps in the blood of the wicked: ¹¹And men shall say, Verily there is fruit for the righteous; verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.