Chapter 58

The Just Judgment of the Wicked

¹ 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.”