²⁴ But let the right go rolling on like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

⁸ He has made clear to you, O man, what is good; and what is desired from you by the Lord; only doing what is right, and loving mercy, and walking without pride before your God.

³ To do what is right and true is more pleasing to the Lord than an offering.

⁷ You who make the work of judging a bitter thing, crushing down righteousness to the earth;

¹² For I was a saviour to the poor when he was crying for help, to the child with no father, and to him who had no supporter.

¹³ The blessing of him who was near to destruction came on me, and I put a song of joy into the widow's heart.

¹⁴ I put on righteousness as my clothing, and was full of it; right decisions were to me a robe and a head-dress.

¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind, and feet to him who had no power of walking.

¹⁶ I was a father to the poor, searching out the cause of him who was strange to me.

¹⁷ By me the great teeth of the evil-doer were broken, and I made him give up what he had violently taken away.

³ This is what the Lord has said: Do what is right, judging uprightly, and make free from the hands of the cruel one him whose goods have been violently taken away: do no wrong and be not violent to the man from a strange country and the child without a father and the widow, and let not those who have done no wrong be put to death in this place.

⁶ Because my desire is for mercy and not offerings; for the knowledge of God more than for burned offerings.

¹⁴ Go after good and not evil, so that life may be yours: and so the Lord, the God of armies, will be with you, as you say.

¹⁵ Be haters of evil and lovers of good, and let right be done in the public place: it may be that the Lord, the God of armies, will have mercy on the rest of Joseph.

³² And the scribe said to him, Truly, Master, you have well said that he is one, and there is no other but he:

³³ And to have love for him with all the heart, and with all the mind, and with all the strength, and to have the same love for his neighbour as for himself, is much more than all forms of offerings.

³⁴ And when Jesus saw that he gave a wise answer, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And every man after that was in fear of questioning him any more.