International Standard Version

1 How is it that by remaining silent you can speak righteously? How can you judge people fairly?

2 As a matter of fact, in your heart you plan iniquities! In the land your hands are violent!

3 The wicked go astray from the womb; they go astray, telling lies even from birth.

4 Their venom is like a poisonous snake; even like a deaf serpent that shuts its ears,

5 refusing to hear the voice of the snake charmer, the cunning enchanter.

6 God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; LORD, break the fangs of the young lions!

7 May they flow away like rain water that runs off, may they become like someone who shoots broken arrows.

8 May they be like a snail that dries up as it crawls; like a woman’s stillborn baby, who never saw the sun.

9 Before your clay pots are placed on a fire of burning ^c thorns— whether green or ablaze— wrath will sweep them away like a storm.

10 The righteous person will rejoice when he sees your ^d vengeance; when he washes his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11 A person will say, “Certainly, the righteous are rewarded; certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”