Psalm, 58

To the director; set to “Do Not Bring to Ruin.” Of David. Mikʹtam.^*1

¹ Can you speak about righteousness when you are silent? Can you judge in uprightness, you sons of men?

² Instead, you devise unrighteousness in your heart, And your hands dispense violence in the land.

³ The wicked go astray^*1 from birth;^*2 They are wayward, liars from the time they are born.

⁴ Their venom is like the venom of serpents; They are deaf like the cobra that stops up its ear.

⁵ It will not listen to the voice of charmers, No matter how skillful their spells.

⁶ O God, knock the teeth out of their mouth! Break the jaws of these lions,^*1 O Jehovah!

⁷ May they disappear like waters that drain away. May He bend his bow and make them fall by his arrows.

⁸ May they be like a snail that melts away as it moves along; Like a woman’s stillborn child who never sees the sun.

⁹ Before your cooking pots feel the heat of the bramble, He will sweep away both the moist and the burning twig, as in a storm wind.

¹⁰ The righteous one will rejoice because he has seen the vengeance; His feet will be drenched with the blood of the wicked.

¹¹ Then men will say: “Surely there is a reward for the righteous. There is indeed a God who judges in the earth.”