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

¹ Do ye indeed in silence speak righteousness? Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?

² Nay, in heart ye work wickedness; Ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.

²³ Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

¹⁶ Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, hath appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and `seen' that which is done to you in Egypt:

¹⁵ and if ye shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor mine ordinances, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;

¹⁹ Cursed be he that wresteth the justice `due' to the sojourner, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.

¹⁵ He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to Jehovah.

²⁸ They are waxed fat, they shine: yea, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they plead not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

¹ Hear this, O ye priests, and hearken, O house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king; for unto you pertaineth the judgment; for ye have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

¹ And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice?