To the Chief Musician."Do not destroy." A secret treasure of David.

1Do you indeed speak righteousness, O mighty lords? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men?

2Yea! In your heart you work wickedness; you weigh out the violence from your hands in the earth.

3The wicked are estranged from the womb; they who speak lies go astray from birth.

4Their venom is like the venom of a serpent; he stops his ear like the deaf adder,

5Which will not listen to the charmer's voice, though a skillful caster of spells.

6O God, break their teeth in their mouth; shatter the fangs of the young lions, O LORD.

7Let them melt away like waters which run off continually. When he aims his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off.

8Let them be as a slug which is melting away; as a miscarriage of a woman, so they may never see the sun.

9Before your pots can feel the thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind-- whether green or dry.

10The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall bathe his footsteps in the blood of the wicked,

11So that a man shall say, "Truly, there is a reward for the righteous; truly, there is a God Who is judging in the earth."