Psalm 58

(from Day 11 Morning Prayer)

Si vere utique

1. ARE your minds set upon righteousness, O ye congregation: and do ye judge the thing that is right, O ye sons of men?
2. Yea, ye imagine mischief in your heart upon the earth: and your hands deal with wickedness.
3. The ungodly are froward, even from their mother's womb: as soon as they are born, they go astray, and speak lies.
4. They are as venomous as the poison of a serpent: even like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears;
5. Which refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer: charm he never so wisely.
6. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouths; smite the jaw-bones of the lions, O Lord: let them fall away like water that runneth apace; and when they shoot their arrows let them be rooted out.
7. Let them consume away like a snail, and be like the untimely fruit of a woman: and let them not see the sun.
8. Or ever your pots be made hot with thorns: so let indignation vex him, even as a thing that is raw.
9. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his footsteps in the blood of the ungodly.
10. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth.