Psalm LVIII

Do you that are in Council met,
[Speak and] determine what is just;
And justly judge, ye sons of men,
[Indeed] according to your trust?

Yea, in your hearts you wickedness
Contrive, [plot, and] promote, and then
Out of the Judgment-seats your hands
Weigh violence [on earth] to men.

Bad men are from the womb estrang'd,
From every just and holy way;
As soon as they are born, they are
Inclin'd [by lies] to go astray.

To serpent's poyson very like,
Their [hurtful] poyson doth appear;
And like the adder deaf they are,
That fast doth [close and] stop her ear.

Lest she should hear the charmer's voice
[At all] although the man should charm
Never so wisely, to inchant
Her, that she do no [deadly] harm.

Break thou their poysonous teeth, O God,
[Yea] from their mouth [quite] break them out;
Yea, break the sharp devouring teeth.
Of Lions [even the] young and stout.

Let them like waters melt away,
Which downward still do [slide and] flow;
In pieces cut his arrows all
When he doth bend his [unjust] bow.

Like to a snail that melts away,
Let them all [pass and] hence be gone;
That like the womb's untimely birth,
They never see the [shining] sun.

Before your pots can feel the thorns,
Away [in wrath] he shall them drive;
And with his whirlwind's angry storms
Sweep them away [from hence] alive.

The righteous shall rejoyce, when he
[This just] revenge from God shall see;
And in the blood of wicked men
Even wash his [conquering] feet shall he.

Then men shall say, Truly there is
For righteous men [a great] reward:
Surely there is a God that doth
The earth judge, and [mens works] regard.