To the director; set to “Do Not Bring to Ruin.” Of David. Mikʹtam.
58 Can you speak about righteousness when you are silent?
Can you judge in uprightness, you sons of men?
2 Instead, you devise unrighteousness in your heart,
And your hands dispense violence in the land.
3 The wicked go astray from birth;
They are wayward, liars from the time they are born.
4 Their venom is like the venom of serpents;
They are deaf like the cobra that stops up its ear.
5 It will not listen to the voice of charmers,
No matter how skillful their spells.
6 O Al {pre. Ahl}, knock the teeth out of their mouth!
Break the jaws of these lions, O Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}!
7 May they disappear like waters that drain away.
May He bend his bow and make them fall by his arrows.
8 May they be like a snail that melts away as it moves along;
Like a woman’s stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9 Before your cooking pots feel the heat of the bramble,
He will sweep away both the moist and the burning twig, as in a storm wind.
10 The righteous one will rejoice because he has seen the vengeance;
His feet will be drenched with the blood of the wicked.
11 Then men will say: “Surely there is a reward for the righteous.
There is indeed a Al {pre. Ahl} who judges in the earth.”