God Who Judges the Earth

To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam1 of David.

¹Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?2

Do you judge the children of man uprightly?

²No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;

your hands deal out violence on earth.

³The wicked are estranged from the womb;

they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

⁴They have venom like the venom of a serpent,

like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

⁵so that it does not hear the voice of charmers

or of the cunning enchanter.

⁶O God, break the teeth in their mouths;

tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!

⁷Let them vanish like water that runs away;

when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.

⁸Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,

like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.

⁹Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,

whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!3

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;

he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;

surely there is a God who judges on earth.”