The Just Judgment of the Wicked

To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.”^[a] A Michtam of David.

58 Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones?Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men?² No, in heart you work wickedness;You 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 cobra that stops its ear,⁵ Which will not heed the voice of charmers,Charming ever so skillfully.

⁶ Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!⁷ Let them flow away as waters which run continually;When he bends his bow,Let his arrows be as if cut in pieces.⁸ Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes,Like a stillborn child of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

⁹ Before your pots can feel the burning thorns,He shall take them away as with a whirlwind,As in His living and burning wrath.¹⁰ The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance;He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,¹¹ So that men will say,“Surely there is a reward for the righteous;Surely He is God who judges in the earth.”