1Prayer for the punishment of the wicked.
For the Chief Musician; set to Al-tashheth. A Psalm of David. Michtam.
1Do ye indeed 2in silence speak righteousness?Do ye 3judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?2Nay, in heart ye work wickedness;Ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.3The wicked are estranged from the womb:They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.4Their poison is like the poison of a serpent:They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear,5Which hearkeneth not to the voice of 4charmers,Charming never so wisely.6Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth:Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah.7Let them melt away as water that runneth apace:When he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off.8Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away,Like the untimely birth of a woman, 5that hath not seen the sun.9Before your pots can feel the thorns,6He will take them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.10The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance:He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;11So that men shall say, Verily there is 7a reward for the righteous:Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.