God Who Judges the Earth

58 To the choirmaster: according to hDo Not Destroy. A iMiktam1 of David.

1  Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?2

Do you judge the children of man uprightly?

2  No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;

your hands jdeal out violence on earth.

3  The wicked are kestranged from the womb;

they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

4  lThey have venom like the venom of a serpent,

like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

5  so that it mdoes not hear the voice of charmers

or of the cunning enchanter.

6  O God, nbreak the teeth in their mouths;

tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!

7  Let them ovanish like water that runs away;

when he paims his arrows, let them be blunted.

8  Let them be like the snail othat dissolves into slime,

like qthe stillborn child who never sees the sun.

9  Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of rthorns,

whether green or ablaze, may he ssweep them away!3

10  tThe righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;

he will ubathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11  Mankind will say, “Surely there is va reward for the righteous;

surely there is a God who wjudges on earth.”