Unjust Rulers
Study note
David challenges rulers who claim to speak justly but actually plan wickedness. The wicked are corrupt from birth, their poison is like a deadly snake that refuses to listen.
1 You rulers — are you speaking with justice? Are you truly judging people fairly? Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2 Not at all! In your hearts you are plotting injustice. Your hands spread violence everywhere in the land. Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 Wicked people go wrong from the very day they are born. Liars start down the wrong path from the very start. The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
4 They carry poison like a venomous snake — like a cobra that plugs its ears Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
5 so it cannot hear the music of the snake charmer, no matter how talented the charmer is. Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
A Prayer for God's Justice
Study note
David asks God to break the teeth of these wicked leaders and let them vanish. When the righteous see God's justice carried out, they will know there is a God who judges the earth.
6 God, smash their teeth right out of their mouths! Lord, rip out the fangs of these young lions! Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away. When they draw back their bows, let the arrows go dull. 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 Let them dissolve like a slug melting as it moves along. Let them be like a baby that never drew its first breath and never saw sunlight. 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 feel the heat from burning thorns, God will sweep the wicked away. He will blow them off like a storm, green thorns or dry. Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10 Those who do right will celebrate when they see justice carried out. They will wade through the aftermath of the wicked's defeat. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Then people everywhere will say, "There is a reward for people who live right. There is a God who judges the earth." So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.