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