The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 Is this any way to run a country? Is there an honest politician in the house?
1
Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
2 Behind the scenes you brew cauldrons of evil, behind closed doors you make deals with demons.
2
No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.
3 The wicked crawl from the wrong side of the cradle; their first words out of the womb are lies.
3
The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
4 Poison, lethal rattlesnake poison, drips from their forked tongues -
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They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5 Deaf to threats, deaf to charm, decades of wax built up in their ears.
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so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.
6 God, smash their teeth to bits, leave them toothless tigers.
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O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!
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.
7
Let them vanish like water that runs away; when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8 Let them dissolve into snail slime, be a miscarried fetus that never sees sunlight.
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Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9 Before what they cook up is half-done, God, throw it out with the garbage!
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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 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 rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his 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!"
11
Mankind will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on 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.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.