1 D o you speak what is right and good, O you powerful ones? Are you always right in how you judge, O sons of men?

¶ Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of Adam?

2 N o, in your heart you do what is wrong. You use your hands to hurt and destroy in the land.

Yea, in heart ye work iniquity; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

3 T he sinful go wrong as soon as they are born. Those who speak lies go the wrong way from birth.

The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

4 T heir poison is like the poison of a snake. They are like a cobra that cannot or will not listen.

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stops her ear,

5 I t does not hear the voice of the man who has power over it, even if the man is very good in his work.

which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.

6 O God, break the teeth in their mouth. Break out the teeth of the young lions, O Lord.

¶ Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

7 L et them flow away like water that pours. When he uses his arrows, let them have no heads.

Let them melt away as waters which run continually; when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.

8 L et them be like a snail that melts away as it goes. Like a baby born dead, may they never see the sun.

As a snail which melts, let them pass away, like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

9 B efore your pots can feel the fire of thorns, He will blow them away with a storm, both the green and the burning ones.

Before your pots can feel the fire of the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.

10 T he one who is right and good will be full of joy when he sees the sinful punished. He will wash his feet in their blood.

The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11 A nd men will say, “For sure there is pay for those who are right and good. For sure there is a God Who says who is guilty or not on the earth.”

So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily there is a God that judges in the earth.