1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness in silence? Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?

2 No! In heart ye work wickedness. Ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.

3 The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops her ear,

5 which hearkens not to the voice of charmers, charming ever so wisely.

6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.

7 Let them melt away as water that runs with haste. When he aims his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off,

8 as a snail which melts and passes away, [as] the untimely birth of a woman, that has not seen the sun.

9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he will take them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike.

10 A righteous man shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,

11 so that men shall say, Truly there is a reward for the righteous man. Truly there is a God who judges in the earth.