| King James Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? | 1Justice—do you rulers know the meaning of the word? Do you judge the people fairly? |
| 2Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. | 2No! You plot injustice in your hearts. You spread violence throughout the land. |
| 3The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. | 3These wicked people are born sinners; even from birth they have lied and gone their own way. |
| 4Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; | 4They spit venom like deadly snakes; they are like cobras that refuse to listen, |
| 5Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. | 5ignoring the tunes of the snake charmers, no matter how skillfully they play. |
| 6Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD. | 6Break off their fangs, O God! Smash the jaws of these lions, O LORD! |
| 7Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. | 7May they disappear like water into thirsty ground. Make their weapons useless in their hands. |
| 8As 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. | 8May they be like snails that dissolve into slime, like a stillborn child who will never see the sun. |
| 9Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. | 9God will sweep them away, both young and old, faster than a pot heats over burning thorns. |
| 10The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. | 10The godly will rejoice when they see injustice avenged. They will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked. |
| 11So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. | 11Then at last everyone will say, “There truly is a reward for those who live for God; surely there is a God who judges justly here on earth.” |
| King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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