^1aTo the choirmaster, Al-tashcheth.↑

A Golden Psalm of David.

^1bIs there indeed silence

When you should speak righteously?

Do you judge uprightly,

O sons of Adam?

²Indeed, in your heart you commit iniquitous things,

And you mete out the violence of your hands on the earth.

³The wicked have been estranged since their time in the womb;

They have erred since their time in the belly,

Speaking falsehood.

⁴They have venom like serpents' venom;

They are like a deaf viper

That shuts its ear,

⁵That does not listen to the voice of charmers,

Nor the sagacious spellbinder.

⁶O God, break their teeth in their mouth;

Wrench out the incisors of lions, O Lord.

⁷May they melt away as water flows its way.

As soon as one attaches his arrow to his bow,

May they be like those who are cut off.

⁸Like a snail which melts as it goes;

Like a woman's miscarriage,

May they not see the sun.

⁹Before your pots are aware of the blackthorn fire,

As one minute living, another minute over a fire,

He will sweep them away.

¹⁰The righteous man will rejoice;

When he has seen vengeance,

He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹And a man will say,

“There is indeed fruit for the righteous.

There is indeed a God

Judging on the earth.”