1For the Conductor, a plea to be spared destruction; by David, a michtam.
2Is it true that you are mute [instead of] speaking justice? [Instead of] judging men with fairness?
3Even with your heart you wreak injustice upon the land; you justify the violence of your hands.
4The wicked are estranged from the womb; from birth do the speakers of falsehood stray.
5Their venom is like the venom of a snake; like the deaf viper that closes its ear
6so as not to hear the voice of charmers, [even] the most skillful caster of spells.
7O God, smash their teeth in their mouth; shatter the fangs of the young lions, O Lord.
8Let them melt like water and disappear; when He aims His arrows, may they crumble.
9Like the snail that melts as it goes along, like the stillbirth of a woman-they never see the sun.
10Before your tender shoots know [to become] hardened thorns, He will blast them away, as one [uprooting] with vigor and wrath.
11The righteous one will rejoice when he sees revenge; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
12And man will say, "There is indeed reward for the righteous; indeed there is a God Who judges in the land."