Good News Translation GNT
Revised Standard Version RSV
1 Do you rulers ever give a just decision? Do you judge everyone fairly?
1
To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David. Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the sons of men uprightly?
2 No! You think only of the evil you can do, and commit crimes of violence in the land.
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Nay, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.
3 Evildoers go wrong all their lives; they tell lies from the day they are born.
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The wicked go astray from the womb, they err from their birth, speaking lies.
4 They are full of poison like snakes; they stop up their ears like a deaf cobra,
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They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5 which does not hear the voice of the snake charmer, or the chant of the clever magician.
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so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.
6 Break the teeth of these fierce lions, O God.
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O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!
7 May they disappear like water draining away; may they be crushed like weeds on a path.
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Let them vanish like water that runs away; like grass let them be trodden down and wither.
8 May they be like snails that dissolve into slime; may they be like a baby born dead that never sees the light.
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Let them be like the snail which dissolves into slime, like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.
9 Before they know it, they are cut down like weeds; in his fierce anger God will blow them away while they are still living.
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Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!
10 The righteous will be glad when they see sinners punished; they will wade through the blood of the wicked.
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The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 People will say, "The righteous are indeed rewarded; there is indeed a God who judges the world."
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Men will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.