Psalms Chapter 58

For the Choir Director. A Mikhtam of David

Set to Do Not Destroy

¹ Leaders, do you decree what’s right?

         Do you judge justly?

² No, you plot injustice in your hearts

         and spread violence in the land.

                        ³ The sinful go astray from the womb;

                              they lie from the time they’re born.

                        ⁴ They have venom like vipers,

            and stop up their ears like deaf cobras

         ⁵so they don’t hear their charmers’ voices

            or those skilled at casting spells.

Ps 58:1-5

⁶ Pull out their fangs, God;

         break the teeth out of the young lions.

⁷ Make them disappear like water that drains away;

         make their arrows shafts without points.

⁸ Make sinners be like snails that dissolve as they go along,

      like a miscarriage that never sees the sun.

⁹ Before your pots can feel the heat of burning briers;

      he’ll sweep them away with a whirlwind,

      whether green or on fire.

Ps 58:6-9

¹⁰ Good people will celebrate when they see God pay them back;

      he’ll wash their feet in the sinners’ blood.

¹¹ People will say, “There’s surely a reward for good people;

      there’s certainly a God that judges on earth!”

Ps 58:10-11