Speak, O ye judges of the earth

Verse 1

Speak, O ye judges of the earth, If just your sentence be: Or must not innocence appeal To heav'n from your decree?

Verse 2

Your wicked hearts and judgements are Alike by malice sway'd; Your griping hands, by weighty bribes, To violence betray'd.

Verse 3

To virtue strangers, from the womb, Their infant steps went wrong; They prattled slander, and in lies Employ'd their lisping tongue.

Verse 4

No serpent of parch'd Afric's breed Does ranker poison bear; The drowsy adder will as soon, Unlock his sullen ear.

Verse 5

Unmov'd by good advice, and deaf As adders they remain; From whom the skilful charmer's voice Can no attention gain.

Verse 6

Defeat, O God, their threat'ning rage, And timely break their pow'r: Disarm these growling lions' jaws, E're practis'd to devour.

Verse 7

Let now their insolence, at height, Like ebbing tides, be spent; Their shiver'd darts deceive their aim, When they their bow have bent.

Verse 8

Like snails let them dissolve to slime; Like hasty births become Unworthy to behold the sun, And dead within the womb.

Verse 9

E'er thorns can make the flesh-pot boil, Tempest'ous wrath shall come From God, and snatch them hence alive, To their eternal doom.

Verse 10

The righteous shall rejoice to see, Their crimes with vengeance meet; And saints in persecutor's blood Shall dip their harmless feet.

Verse 11

Transgressors then with grief shall see Just men rewards obtain, And own a God, whose justice will The guilty earth arraign.