Psalm 58
New American Standard Bible 2020
Chapter overview
Psalm 58 denounces rulers who manufacture injustice and remain deaf to correction. Its severe poetic images demand an end to entrenched harm, so communities can see that righteous judgment truly matters.
JusticeCorrupt rulersJudgmentCommunity
1Do you indeed speak righteousness, you gods? Do you judge fairly, you sons of mankind?
2No, in heart you practice injustice; On earth you clear a way for the violence of your hands.
3The wicked have turned away from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.
4They have venom like the venom of a serpent; Like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear,
5So that it does not hear the voice of charmers, Or a skillful caster of spells.
6¶God, shatter their teeth in their mouth; Break out the fangs of the young lions, Lord.
7May they flow away like water that runs off; When he aims his arrows, may they be as headless shafts.
8May they be like a snail which goes along in slime, Like the miscarriage of a woman that never sees the sun.
9Before your pots can feel the fire of thorns He will sweep them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.
10¶The righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance; He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11And people will say, “There certainly is a reward for the righteous; There certainly is a God who judges on the earth!”
New American Standard Bible 2020 — Licensed through API.Bible, non-commercial use only, no derivatives. Where these translations come from.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org Text unchanged, provided through API.Bible.