Psalms 58

The psalmist challenges corrupt judges who devise wickedness in their hearts and distribute violence in the earth. The wicked are like a deaf serpent that will not listen to the voice of the charmer. He calls on God to break their teeth and melt them away, that men may say there is a God that judges in the earth.

v	King James Version	Modern English
1	Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?	Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity?
2	Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.	No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth.
3	The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.	Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.
4	Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;	Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,
5	Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.	that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be.
6	Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.	Break the teeth in their mouths, O God; LORD, tear out the fangs of those lions!
7	Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.	Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short.
8	As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.	May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along, like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.
9	Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.	Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns — whether they be green or dry — the wicked will be swept away.
10	The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.	The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11	So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.	Then people will say, "Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God Who judges the earth."