Bible / Psalms
Psalms 57
Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner revision (1749–1752), the traditional Catholic English Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate. If you read a modern Bible, this is the same Scripture in older English; some names are spelled differently (Cesarea for Caesarea, Apocalypse for Revelation). About this translation
1 Unto the end, destroy not, for David, for an inscription of a title.
2 If in very deed ye speak justice: judge right things, ye sons of men.
3 For in your heart you work iniquity: your hands forge injustice in the earth.
4 The wicked are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb: they have spoken false things.
5 Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears:
6 Which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the wizard that charmeth wisely.
7 God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouth: the Lord shall break the grinders of the lions.
8 They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he hath bent his bow till they be weakened.
9 Like wax that melteth they shall be taken away: fire hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun.
10 Before your thorns could know the brier; he swalloweth them up, as alive, in his wrath.
11 The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.
12 And man shall say: If indeed there be fruit to the just: there is indeed a God that judgeth them on the earth.
This chapter in the Catechism and the early Church
Where the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these verses (from its footnotes on vatican.va), and where the earliest Church Fathers quote them (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, public domain). Short quotes only; follow the links for the full text. The Catechism uses modern verse numbers and psalm numbers (one higher than Douay-Rheims for most psalms), so these are listed by chapter.
- Psalm 58:3 in modern Bibles
Read the Fathers
“As also David says, "The alienated are sinners from the womb: they go astray as soon as they are born.”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book III, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter X. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
“Wherefore they cannot receive His inheritance: as David says, "Sinners are alienated from the womb; their anger is after the likeness of a serpent.”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XLI. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
- Psalm 58:4 in modern Bibles
Read the Fathers
“Wherefore they cannot receive His inheritance: as David says, "Sinners are alienated from the womb; their anger is after the likeness of a serpent.”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XLI. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
A modern English Catholic translation will be added once its publisher grants permission.