Psalm 58

¹ To the Overseer. — ‘Destroy not.’ — A secret treasure, by David. Is it true, O dumb one, righteously ye speak? Uprightly ye judge, O sons of men?

² Even in heart ye work iniquities, In the land the violence of your hands ye ponder.

³ The wicked have been estranged from the womb, They have erred from the belly, speaking lies.

⁴ Their poison [is] as poison of a serpent, As a deaf asp shutting its ear,

⁵ Which hearkeneth not to the voice of whisperers, A charmer of charms most skilful.

⁶ O God, break their teeth in their mouth, The jaw-teeth of young lions break down, O Jehovah.

⁷ They are melted as waters, They go up and down for themselves, His arrow proceedeth as they cut themselves off.

⁸ As a snail that melteth he goeth on, [As] an untimely birth of a woman, They have not seen the sun.

⁹ Before your pots discern the bramble, As well the raw as the heated He whirleth away.

¹⁰ The righteous rejoiceth that he hath seen vengeance, His steps he washeth in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹ And man saith: ‘Surely fruit [is] for the righteous: Surely there is a God judging in the earth!’