3 For your hands are defiled with blood

and your fingers, with iniquity;

your lips have spoken lies,

and your tongues mutter injustice.

4 No one makes claims justly;

no one pleads honestly.

They trust in empty and worthless words;

they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity.z

5 They hatch viper’s eggs

and weave spider’s webs.

Whoever eats their eggs will die;

crack one open, and a viper is hatched.

6 Their webs cannot become clothing,

and they cannot cover themselves with their works.

Their works are sinful works,

and violent acts are in their hands.

7 Their feet run after evil,aa

and they rush to shed innocent blood.ab

Their thoughts are sinful thoughts;ac

ruin and wretchedness are in their paths.

8 They have not known the path of peace,ad

and there is no justice in their ways.

They have made their roads crooked;

no one who walks on them will know peace.a

9 Therefore justice is far from us,

and righteousness does not reach us.

We hope for light, but there is darkness;

for brightness, but we live in the night.