¹For the music director, according to the al-tashcheth style; a prayer of David. Do you rulers really pronounce just decisions? Do you judge people fairly? ²No! You plan how to do what is unjust; you deal out violence in the earth. ³The wicked turn aside from birth; liars go astray as soon as they are born. ⁴Their venom is like that of a snake, like a deaf serpent that does not hear, ⁵that does not respond to the magicians, or to a skilled snake charmer. ⁶O God, break the teeth in their mouths! Smash the jawbones of the lions, O Lord. ⁷Let them disappear like water that flows away. Let them wither like grass. ⁸Let them be like a snail that melts away as it moves along. Let them be like stillborn babies that never see the sun. ⁹Before the kindling is even placed under your pots, he will sweep it away along with both the raw and cooked meat. ¹⁰The godly will rejoice when they see vengeance carried out; they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked. ¹¹Then observers will say, “Yes indeed, the godly are rewarded. Yes indeed, there is a God who judges in the earth.”