‏ Psalms 58

Prayer for the Punishment of the Wicked.

For the choir director; set to
Lit Do Not Destroy
Al-tashheth. A
Possibly Epigrammatic Poem or Atonement Psalm
Mikhtam of David.

1 Do you indeed
Another reading is speak righteousness in silence
speak righteousness, O
Or mighty ones or judges
gods?
Do you ejudge
Or uprightly the sons of men
uprightly, O sons of men?
2No, in heart you gwork unrighteousness;
On earth you hweigh out the violence of your hands.
3The wicked are estranged ifrom the womb;
These who speak lies jgo astray from
Lit the womb
birth.
4They have venom like the lvenom of a serpent;
Like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear,
5So that it mdoes not hear the voice of
Or whisperers
,
ocharmers,
Or a skillful caster of spells.

6O God, pshatter their teeth in their mouth;
Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord.
7Let them qflow away like water that runs off;
When he
Lit bends
,
saims his arrows, let them be as
Lit though they were cut off
headless shafts.
8 Let them be as a snail which
I.e. secretes slime
melts away as it goes along,
Like the vmiscarriages of a woman which never see the sun.
9Before your wpots can feel the fire of thorns
He will xsweep them away with a whirlwind, the
Lit living
green and the burning alike.

10The zrighteous will rejoice when he aasees the vengeance;
He will abwash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11And men will say, “Surely there is a
Lit fruit
,
adreward for the righteous;
Surely there is a God who aejudges
Or in
on earth!”

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