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Psalm 58

1  Do you indeed speak justly, you mighty? ♦︎
   Do you rule the peoples with equity?
2  With unjust heart you act throughout the land; ♦︎
   your hands mete out violence.
3  The wicked are estranged, even from the womb; ♦︎
   those who speak falsehood go astray from their birth.
4  They are as venomous as a serpent; ♦︎
   they are like the deaf adder which stops its ears,
5  Which does not heed the voice of the charmers, ♦︎
   and is deaf to the skilful weaver of spells.
6  Break, O God, their teeth in their mouths; ♦︎
   smash the fangs of these lions, O Lord.
7  Let them vanish like water that runs away; ♦︎
   let them wither like trodden grass.
8  Let them be as the slimy track of the snail, ♦︎
   like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.
9  Before ever their pots feel the heat of the thorns, ♦︎
   green or blazing, let them be swept away.
10  The righteous will be glad when they see God’s vengeance; ♦︎
   they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11  So that people will say,
      ‘Truly, there is a harvest for the righteous; ♦︎
   truly, there is a God who judges in the earth.’

²³ How can you say, ‘I am not defiled,
   I have not gone after the Baals’?
Look at your way in the valley;
   know what you have done—
a restive young camel interlacing her tracks,
²⁴   a wild ass at home in the wilderness,
in her heat sniffing the wind!
   Who can restrain her lust?
None who seek her need weary themselves;
   in her month they will find her.
²⁵ Keep your feet from going unshod
   and your throat from thirst.
But you said, ‘It is hopeless,
   for I have loved strangers,
   and after them I will go.’

²⁶ As a thief is shamed when caught,
   so the house of Israel shall be shamed—
they, their kings, their officials,
   their priests, and their prophets,
²⁷ who say to a tree, ‘You are my father’,
   and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
For they have turned their backs to me,
   and not their faces.
But in the time of their trouble they say,
   ‘Come and save us!’
²⁸ But where are your gods
   that you made for yourself?
Let them come, if they can save you,
   in your time of trouble;
for you have as many gods
   as you have towns, O Judah.

²⁹ Why do you complain against me?
   You have all rebelled against me,

says the Lord.
³⁰ In vain I have struck down your children;
   they accepted no correction.
Your own sword devoured your prophets
   like a ravening lion.
³¹ And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord!^*
Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
   or a land of thick darkness?
Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,
   we will come to you no more’?
³² Can a girl forget her ornaments,
   or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
   days without number.

³³ How well you direct your course
   to seek lovers!
So that even to wicked women
   you have taught your ways.
³⁴ Also on your skirts is found
   the lifeblood of the innocent poor,
though you did not catch them breaking in.
   Yet in spite of all these things^*
35 you say, ‘I am innocent;
   surely his anger has turned from me.’
Now I am bringing you to judgement
   for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶ How lightly you gad about,
   changing your ways!
You shall be put to shame by Egypt
   as you were put to shame by Assyria.
³⁷ From there also you will come away
   with your hands on your head;
for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,
   and you will not prosper through them.

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. ⁹Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food,^* which have not benefited those who observe them. ¹⁰We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent^* have no right to eat. ¹¹For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. ¹²Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. ¹³Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. ¹⁴For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. ¹⁵Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. ¹⁶Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with sighing—for that would be harmful to you.

18 Pray for us; we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honourably in all things. ¹⁹I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you very soon.

Benediction

20 Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us^* that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.