Psalm 58

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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A God who judges the earth

¹For the music director. To the tune “Do Not Destroy.” Of David. A miktam. ²You gods, do you really speak what is right? Do you judge human beings fairly? ³No, in your hearts you plan wrong, and on earth your hands deal out violence by weight. ⁴From the womb the wicked have turned aside; from birth those who tell lies have wandered off. ⁵Their poison is like a snake’s poison, like a cobra that is deaf and stops up its ear, ⁶so that it does not hear the voice of the charmers, however skilled the one who weaves the spell. ⁷God, smash the teeth in their mouths; LORD, rip out the young lions’ fangs! ⁸Let them drain away like water running off; when they take aim with their arrows, let the shafts be snapped. ⁹May they be like a snail that turns to slime as it moves, like a baby born dead, who has not looked on the sun. ¹⁰Sooner than your pots can sense the thorn fire, green or blazing, he will sweep it all away in a storm. ¹¹The righteous will be glad when they see justice repaid; they will bathe their feet in the wicked’s blood. ¹²Then people will say, “Yes, the righteous do receive a reward; yes, a God does judge on the earth.”