Psalm 58

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul into the cave. Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy, for in You my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of Your wings I will take shelter until the danger has passed.

³And He will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what His eyes see, and He will not decide by what His ears hear,

⁴but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.

¹Of Solomon. Endow the king with Your justice, O God, and the son of the king with Your righteousness.

²May he judge Your people with righteousness and Your afflicted with justice.

¹⁸You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

¹⁹Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

¹⁵So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them as leaders over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and as officers for your tribes.

¹⁶At that time I charged your judges: “Hear the disputes between your brothers, and judge fairly between a man and his brother or a foreign resident.

⁶Then he said to the judges, “Consider carefully what you do, for you are not judging for man, but for the Lord, who is with you when you render judgment.

⁷And now, may the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.”

²⁰Can a corrupt throne be Your ally—one devising mischief by decree?

¹Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees,

¹⁶Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.

¹Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?

²You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.

²⁷Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.

¹⁵So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

⁵Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

⁸You have never heard; you have never understood; for a long time your ears have not been open. For I knew how deceitful you are; you have been called a rebel from birth.

¹⁵Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

³All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

¹⁴What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁰From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother’s womb You have been my God.

³They sharpen their tongues like snakes; the venom of vipers is on their lips. Selah

⁸but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

¹⁷“For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the Lord.

¹³“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”

¹¹If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.

¹⁴yet in his stomach his food sours into the venom of cobras within him.

¹⁷“For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the Lord.

¹¹casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead.

³Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them, and I will frustrate their plans, so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead, to mediums and spiritists.

⁷Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.

¹⁴For I am like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them to pieces and then go away. I will carry them off where no one can rescue them.

¹⁵Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call him to account for his wickedness until none is left to be found.

¹⁷I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.

¹⁰The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.

¹¹The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹²like a lion greedy for prey, like a young lion lurking in ambush.

¹⁰The wicked man will see and be grieved; he will gnash his teeth and waste away; the desires of the wicked will perish.

⁵And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of them, chasing them from the gate as far as the quarries and striking them down on the slopes. So the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

⁷Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.

³who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows,

¹⁵Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed; trembling will seize the leaders of Moab; those who dwell in Canaan will melt away,

⁹and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you.

¹⁰For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.

¹⁶Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?

³A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

³⁵I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,

³⁶yet he passed away and was no more; though I searched, he could not be found.

¹⁰But the one who is rich should exult in his low position, because he will pass away like a flower of the field.

³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

²⁵When the whirlwind passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are secure forever.

¹²They swarmed around me like bees, but they were extinguished like burning thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off.

⁶For like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.

¹³The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.

¹⁹Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone out with fury, a whirlwind swirling down upon the heads of the wicked.

²In pride the wicked pursue the needy; let them be caught in the schemes they devise.

²³that your foot may be dipped in the blood of your foes—the tongues of your dogs in the same.”

⁸You will only see it with your eyes and witness the punishment of the wicked.

¹⁰When the righteous thrive, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.

¹⁷saying: “We give thanks to You, O Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.

¹⁸The nations were enraged, and Your wrath has come. The time has come to judge the dead and to reward Your servants the prophets, as well as the saints and those who fear Your name, both small and great—and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

¹⁰Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in Him; let all the upright in heart exult.

⁴³Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him. Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His children. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and repay those who hate Him; He will cleanse His land and His people.

⁴Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You judge the peoples justly and lead the nations of the earth. Selah

¹⁰Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.

⁹Then all mankind will fear and proclaim the work of God; so they will ponder what He has done.

¹⁸Surely the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His loving devotion

¹⁷You have wearied the Lord with your words; yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord, and in them He delights,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”

⁵But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.