The Message Bible MSG
New International Version NIV
1 Is this any way to run a country? Is there an honest politician in the house?
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Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity?
2 Behind the scenes you brew cauldrons of evil, behind closed doors you make deals with demons.
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No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth.
3 The wicked crawl from the wrong side of the cradle; their first words out of the womb are lies.
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Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.
4 Poison, lethal rattlesnake poison, drips from their forked tongues -
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Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,
5 Deaf to threats, deaf to charm, decades of wax built up in their ears.
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that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be.
6 God, smash their teeth to bits, leave them toothless tigers.
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Break the teeth in their mouths, O God; LORD, tear out the fangs of those lions!
7 Let their lives be buckets of water spilled, all that's left, a damp stain in the sand. Let them be trampled grass worn smooth by the traffic.
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Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short.
8 Let them dissolve into snail slime, be a miscarried fetus that never sees sunlight.
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May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along, like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.
9 Before what they cook up is half-done, God, throw it out with the garbage!
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Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns— whether they be green or dry—the wicked will be swept away.
10 The righteous will call up their friends when they see the wicked get their reward, Serve up their blood in goblets as they toast one another,
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The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Everyone cheering, "It's worth it to play by the rules! God's handing out trophies and tending the earth!"
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Then people will say, “Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.”
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.