Psalms 58:2–5

¹WOE unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

²⁰Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?

¹⁶¶ And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

²⁷Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

¹AND I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?

²Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

³Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

¹²In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.

⁷The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.

⁴None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

⁵They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

⁶Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

¹⁶He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord.

¹⁷But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

⁴⁷¶ Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.

⁴⁸If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.

⁴⁹And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all,

⁵⁰Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.

⁵¹And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;

⁵²And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

⁵³Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.

¹⁵And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

⁹Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

¹⁰They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

¹¹The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.

¹²Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

¹¹For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.

⁵Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

⁸Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

¹⁵Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

³Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

¹⁴What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁰I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.

³¶ Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb:

⁸But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

³They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.

¹¹Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.

¹⁷For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

¹³Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

³³Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

⁸And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.

¹⁴Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

¹⁶He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

³³Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

⁷¶ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

¹⁷For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

¹¹Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

³And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.