Psalms 58
58
For the choir director: A psalm#58:TITLE Hebrew miktam. This may be a literary or musical term. of David, to be sung to the tune “Do Not Destroy!”
1Justice—do you rulers#58:1 Or you gods. know the meaning of the word?
Do you judge the people fairly?
2No! You plot injustice in your hearts.
You spread violence throughout the land.
3These wicked people are born sinners;
even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.
4They spit venom like deadly snakes;
they are like cobras that refuse to listen,
5ignoring the tunes of the snake charmers,
no matter how skillfully they play.
6Break off their fangs, O God!
Smash the jaws of these lions, O Lord!
7May they disappear like water into thirsty ground.
Make their weapons useless in their hands.#58:7 Or Let them be trodden down and wither like grass. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
8May they be like snails that dissolve into slime,
like a stillborn child who will never see the sun.
9God will sweep them away, both young and old,
faster than a pot heats over burning thorns.
10The godly will rejoice when they see injustice avenged.
They will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11Then at last everyone will say,
“There truly is a reward for those who live for God;
surely there is a God who judges justly here on earth.”
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Psalms 58: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Psalms 58
58
The Dethroning of Unjust Rulers
1For the leader. Do not destroy.#Do not destroy: probably the title of the melody to which the Psalm was to be sung. A miktam of David.
I
2Do you indeed pronounce justice, O gods;#Gods: the Bible sometimes understands pagan gods to be lesser divine beings who are assigned by Israel’s God to rule the foreign nations. Here they are accused of injustice, permitting the human judges under their patronage to abuse the righteous, cf. Ps 82.
do you judge fairly you children of Adam?#Ps 82:2; Dt 16:19.
3No, you freely engage in crime;
your hands dispense violence to the earth.
II
4The wicked have been corrupt since birth;
liars from the womb, they have gone astray.
5#The image is that of a poisonous snake that is controlled by the voice or piping of its trainer.Their venom is like the venom of a snake,
like that of a serpent stopping its ears,#Ps 64:4; 140:3; Rom 3:13.
6So as not to hear the voice of the charmer
or the enchanter with cunning spells.
III
7O God, smash the teeth in their mouths;
break the fangs of these lions, Lord!#Ps 3:7.
8Make them vanish like water flowing away;#Wis 16:29.
trodden down, let them wither like grass.#Ps 37:2.
9Let them dissolve like a snail that oozes away,#A snail that oozes away: empty shells suggested to ancients that snails melted away as they left a slimy trail.
like an untimely birth that never sees the sun.#Jb 3:16.
10Suddenly, like brambles or thistles,
have the whirlwind snatch them away.#Jb 21:18; Hos 13:3; Na 1:10.
11Then the just shall rejoice to see the vengeance
and bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.#Ps 68:24; Is 63:1–6.
12Then people will say:
“Truly there is a reward for the just;
there is a God who is judge on earth!”
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