Book Two (Psalms 42-72) "Concerning Israel as a Nation"
Michtam of David.
1: Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2: Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3: The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
4: Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
5: Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never 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 waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
8: As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
9: Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10: The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11: So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
To the chief Musician, Al-taschith.
subtitle To the chief Musician. See The Companion Bible, Appendix 64.