Psalms

Chapter 57

  1. 2

    Nobles all, are they honest words you utter? And you, common folk, do you make just award?

  2. 3

    See how you devise treachery in your hearts, deal out to this land nothing but oppression!

  3. 4

    Sinners that left the womb only to go a-straying; renegades and liars their mothers bore them!

  4. 5

    They are venomous as serpents, as the asp that turns a deaf ear

  5. 6

    and will not listen to the snake-charmer’s music, skilful player though he be.

  6. 7

    My God, break their cruel fangs; Lord, shatter their jaws, strong as the jaws of lions.

  7. 8

    Like spilt water let them run to waste, shoot none but harmless arrows;

  8. 9

    melt into nothing, the snail’s way, perish like the untimely birth that sees never the light of the sun.

  9. 10

    Green stalks the whirlwind carries away, while yonder pot still waits for fuel!

  10. 11

    The innocent man will triumph at the sight of their punishment, as he dips his hands in the blood of the evil-doer;

  11. 12

    Sure enough, men will say, innocence has its reward, sure enough, there is a God who grants redress here on earth.