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Psalm 58 - Prayer for Vengeance

To the leader: Do Not Destroy.

Of David. A Miktam.


Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?[a] Do you judge people fairly? No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.


The wicked go astray from the womb; they err from their birth, speaking lies. They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear, so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.


O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord! Let them vanish like water that runs away; like grass let them be trodden down[b] and wither. Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime; like the untimely birth that never sees the sun. Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!


10 The righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done; they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked. 11 People will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”


Footnotes

a. Psalm 58:1 Or mighty lords

b. Psalm 58:7 Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain


New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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