Psalm 57
Si vere utique. David reproveth the wicked, and foretelleth their punishment.
1Unto the end, destroy not, for David, for an inscription of a title.2If in very deed you speak justice: judge right things, ye sons of men.3For in your heart you work iniquity: your hands forge injustice in the earth.4The wicked are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb: they have spoken false things.5Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears:6Which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the wizard that charmeth wisely.7God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouth: the Lord shall break the grinders of the lions.8They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he hath bent his bow till they be weakened.9Like wax that melteth they shall be taken away: fire hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun.10Before your thorns could know the brier; he swalloweth them up, as alive, in his wrath.11The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.12And man shall say: If indeed there be fruit to the just: there is indeed a God that judgeth them on the earth. [11] "Shall wash his hands": Shall applaud the justice of God, and take occasion from the consideration of the punishment of the wicked to wash and cleanse his hands from sin.