Judgment on the Wicked

¹ For the music director, according to Do not Destroy. Of David. A miktam.¹ Do you really speak what is right when silent?² Do you judge fairly the children of humankind?³

1. The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one
2. A slight emendation of the Hebrew text yields “what is right, O gods,” or “O mighty ones”
3. Or “Do you judge fairly, O sons of humankind?”

² No, in your heart you plan injustices; in the land¹ you weigh out the violence of your hands.

1. Or “on the earth”

³ The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray from the belly, speaking lies.

⁴ Their venom is like snake venom; They are like a deaf viper that closes its ear

⁵ so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or the skilled caster of spells.

⁶ O God, break their teeth in their mouth. Break off the fangs of the young lions, O Yahweh.

⁷ Let them run away like water that runs off. When he bends the bow, let his arrows be as though they were cut off.¹

1. Or “as though they were withered stalks”

⁸ Let them be like a snail that melts away as it goes; like the stillborn of woman that do not see the sun.

⁹ Before your pots can feel the heat of a thornbush, whether green or ⌞dry⌟,¹ he will sweep it away.²

1. Literally “burning”
2. The Hebrew of this verse is difficult to interpret

¹⁰ The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹ And people¹ will say, “Surely there is a ⌞reward⌟² for the righteous. Surely there is a God who judges in the land.”³

1. Hebrew “a person”
2. Literally “fruit”
3. Or “on the earth”