Psalm 58

For the music leader. Do not destroy. A psalm of David, a miktam.^d

• 58 Do you really speak what is right, you gods?
• Do you really judge humans fairly?
• ² No: in your hearts you plan injustice;
• your hands do violence on the earth.

• ³ The wicked backslide from the womb;
• liars go astray from birth.
• ⁴ Their venom is like a snake’s venom—
• like a deaf cobra’s—one that shuts its ears
• ⁵ so it can’t hear the snake charmer’s voice
• or the spells of a skillful enchanter.

• ⁶ God, break their teeth out of their mouths!
• Tear out the lions’ jawbones, LORD !
• ⁷ Let them dissolve like water flowing away.
• When they bend the bow,
• let their arrows be like headless shafts.^e
• ⁸ Like the snail that dissolves into slime,
• like a woman’s stillborn child,
• let them never see the sun.
• ⁹ Before your pots feel the thorns,
• whether green or burned up,
• God will sweep them away!^f

• ¹⁰ But the righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done,
• when they wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
• ¹¹ Then it will be said:
• “ Yes, there is a reward for the righteous!
• Yes, there is a God who judges people on the earth. ”