King James Version KJV
Good News Translation GNT
1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
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Do you rulers ever give a just decision? Do you judge everyone fairly?
2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
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No! You think only of the evil you can do, and commit crimes of violence in the land.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
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Evildoers go wrong all their lives; they tell lies from the day they are born.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
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They are full of poison like snakes; they stop up their ears like a deaf cobra,
5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
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which does not hear the voice of the snake charmer, or the chant of the clever magician.
6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
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Break the teeth of these fierce lions, O God.
7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
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May they disappear like water draining away; may they be crushed like weeds on a path.
8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
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May they be like snails that dissolve into slime; may they be like a baby born dead that never sees the light.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
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Before they know it, they are cut down like weeds; in his fierce anger God will blow them away while they are still living.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
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The righteous will be glad when they see sinners punished; they will wade through the blood of the wicked.
11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
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People will say, "The righteous are indeed rewarded; there is indeed a God who judges the world."
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.