Psalm 58
To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David.
Do you indeed decree righteousness, O you rulers, and do you judge uprightly, O children of men?
No, you devise evil in your heart, and on the earth your hands deal out violence.
The ungodly err even from their mother’s womb; as soon as they are born, they go astray and speak lies.
They are as venomous as the poison of a serpent, even like the deaf adder that stops its ears,
Which refuses to hear the voice of the charmer, no matter how skillful his charming.
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouths; smite the jawbones of the ungodly.
Let them fall away like water that runs off; let them wither like the grass that is trodden underfoot.
Let them melt away like a snail, and be like a stillborn child that does not see the sun.
Before they bear fruit, let them be cut off like a briar; let them be like thorns and weeds that are swept away.
The righteous shall rejoice when they see the vengeance; they shall wash their feet in the blood of the ungodly.
So that people shall say, “Truly, there is a reward for the righteous; surely, there is a God who judges the earth.”
© Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.