58

The Just Judgment of the Wicked

To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” A Michtam of David.
  1Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones?
   Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men?
   2No, in heart you work wickedness;
   You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
  3The wicked are estranged from the womb;
   They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
   4Their poison is like the poison of a serpent;
   They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear,
   5Which will not heed the voice of charmers,
   Charming ever so skillfully.
  6Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!
   Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
   7Let them flow away as waters which run continually;
   When he bends his bow,
   Let his arrows be as if cut in pieces.
   8Let 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.
  9Before your pots can feel the burning thorns,
   He shall take them away as with a whirlwind,
   As in His living and burning wrath.
   10The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
   He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,
   11So that men will say,
   “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
   Surely He is God who judges in the earth.”