Psalm 58

1    Do you indeed speak justly, you mighty?  ♦

Do you rule the peoples with equity?

2    With unjust heart you act throughout the land;  ♦

your hands mete out violence.

3    The wicked are estranged, even from the womb;  ♦

those who speak falsehood go astray from their birth.

4    They are as venomous as a serpent;  ♦

they are like the deaf adder which stops its ears,

5    Which does not heed the voice of the charmers,  ♦

and is deaf to the skilful weaver of spells.

6    Break, O God, their teeth in their mouths;  ♦

smash the fangs of these lions, O Lord.

7    Let them vanish like water that runs away;  ♦

let them wither like trodden grass.

8    Let them be as the slimy track of the snail,  ♦

like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.

9    Before ever their pots feel the heat of the thorns,  ♦

green or blazing, let them be swept away.

10  The righteous will be glad when they see God’s vengeance;  ♦

they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

11  So that people will say,

    ‘Truly, there is a harvest for the righteous;  ♦

truly, there is a God who judges in the earth.’

Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England, material from which is included here,
is copyright © The Archbishops' Council 2000 and published by Church House Publishing.