New International Version NIV
American Standard Version ASV
1 Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity?
1
Do ye indeed in silence speak righteousness? Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2 No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth.
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Nay, in heart ye work wickedness; Ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.
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The wicked are estranged from the womb: They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4 Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,
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Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: [They are] like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear,
5 that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be.
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Which hearkeneth not to the voice of charmers, Charming never so wisely.
6 Break the teeth in their mouths, O God; LORD, tear out the fangs of those lions!
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Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah.
7 Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short.
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Let them melt away as water that runneth apace: When he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off.
8 May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along, like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.
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[Let them be] as a snail which melteth and passeth away, [Like] the untimely birth of a woman, that hath not seen the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns— whether they be green or dry—the wicked will be swept away.
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Before your pots can feel the thorns, He will take them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.
10 The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.
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The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;
11 Then people will say, “Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.”
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So that men shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.
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.
The American Standard Version is in the public domain.