1 D o you indeed in silence speak righteousness, O you mighty ones? Do you judge fairly and uprightly, O you sons of men?

2 N o, in your heart you devise wickedness; you deal out in the land the violence of your hands.

3 T he ungodly are perverse and estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

4 T heir poison is like the venom of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder or asp that stops its ear,

5 W hich listens not to the voice of charmers or of the enchanter never casting spells so cunningly.

6 B reak their teeth, O God, in their mouths; break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord.

7 L et them melt away as water which runs on apace; when he aims his arrows, let them be as if they were headless or split apart.

8 L et them be as a snail dissolving slime as it passes on or as a festering sore which wastes away, like a woman gives untimely birth that has not seen the sun.

9 B efore your pots can feel the thorns, He will take them away as with a whirlwind, the green and the burning ones alike.

10 T he righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11 M en will say, Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God Who judges on the earth.