Psalm 58
American Standard Version
Prayer for the punishment of the wicked.
For the Chief Musician; set to Al-tashheth. A Psalm of David. Michtam.
[a]58 Do ye indeed [b]in silence speak righteousness?
Do ye [c]judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2 Nay, in heart ye work wickedness;
Ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb:
They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent:
They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear,
5 Which hearkeneth not to the voice of [d]charmers,
Charming never so wisely.
6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth:
Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah.
7 Let them melt away as water that runneth apace:
When he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off.
8 Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away,
Like the untimely birth of a woman, [e]that hath not seen the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns,
[f]He will take them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance:
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;
11 So that men shall say, Verily there is [g]a reward for the righteous:
Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.
Footnotes
- Psalm 58:1 Or, Is the righteousness ye should speak dumb?
- Psalm 58:1 Or, as otherwise read, O ye gods. Or, O ye mighty ones
- Psalm 58:1 Or, judge uprightly the sons of men
- Psalm 58:5 Or, enchanters
- Psalm 58:8 Or, like them that have not seen the sun
- Psalm 58:9 Or, Wrath shall take them away while living as with a whirlwind
- Psalm 58:11 Hebrew fruit.
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