58 1-2 Justice? You high and mighty politicians don’t even know the meaning of the word! Fairness? Which of you has any left? Not one! All your dealings are crooked: you give “justice” in exchange for bribes.[a] 3 These men are born sinners, lying from their earliest words! 4-5 They are poisonous as deadly snakes, cobras that close their ears to the most expert of charmers.
6 O God, break off their fangs. Tear out the teeth of these young lions, Lord. 7 Let them disappear like water into thirsty ground. Make their weapons useless in their hands.[b] 8 Let them be as snails that dissolve into slime and as those who die at birth, who never see the sun. 9 God will sweep away both old and young. He will destroy them more quickly than a cooking pot can feel the blazing fire of thorns beneath it.
10 The godly shall rejoice in the triumph of right;[c] they shall walk the bloodstained fields of slaughtered, wicked men. 11 Then at last everyone will know that good is rewarded, and that there is a God who judges justly here on earth.
Footnotes
- Psalm 58:1 you give “justice” in exchange for bribes, literally, “you deal out the violence of your hands in the land.”
- Psalm 58:7 Make their weapons useless in their hands, or “Let them be trodden down and wither like grass.”
- Psalm 58:10 in the triumph of right, literally, “when he sees the vengeance.”