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.

¹² O family of David, this is what the Lord has said: Do what is right in the morning, and make free from the hands of the cruel one him whose goods have been violently taken away, or my wrath will go out like fire, burning so that no one may put it out, because of the evil of your doings.

¹⁷ But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong, and on violent and cruel acts.

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.

⁷ In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in you they have done wrong to the child without a father and to the widow.

⁵ For if your ways and your doings are truly changed for the better; if you truly give right decisions between a man and his neighbour;

⁶ If you are not cruel to the man from a strange country, and to the child without a father, and to the widow, and do not put the upright to death in this place, or go after other gods, causing damage to yourselves:

²⁸ They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights.

²³ Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.

¹⁵ And when your hands are stretched out to me, my eyes will be turned away from you: even though you go on making prayers, I will not give ear: your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶ Be washed, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; let there be an end of sinning;

¹⁷ Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow.

¹⁸ Come now, and let us have an argument together, says the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool?

¹⁹ If you will give ear to my word and do it, the good things of the land will be yours;

²⁰ But if your hearts are turned against me, I will send destruction on you by the sword; so the Lord has said.

¹⁰ Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father;

²⁴ But if any man has pride, let it be in this, that he has the wisdom to have knowledge of me, that I am the Lord, working mercy, giving true decisions, and doing righteousness in the earth: for in these things I have delight, says the Lord.

¹⁶ Then the rulers and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, It is not right for this man to be put to death: for he has said words to us in the name of the Lord our God.

¹⁹ Masses on masses in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

¹¹ Its heads take rewards for judging, and the priests take payment for teaching, and the prophets get silver for reading the future: but still, supporting themselves on the Lord, they say, Is not the Lord among us? no evil will overtake us.

⁹ This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your judging be upright and done in good faith, let every man have mercy and pity for his brother:

¹⁰ Do not be hard on the widow, or the child without a father, on the man from a strange country, or on the poor; let there be no evil thought in your heart against your brother.

¹¹ But they would not give attention, turning their backs and stopping their ears from hearing;

⁵ And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.

²⁷ The religion which is holy and free from evil in the eyes of our God and Father is this: to take care of children who have no fathers and of widows who are in trouble, and to keep oneself untouched by the world.

¹⁷ Eyes of pride, a false tongue, hands which take life without cause;

²¹ They are banded together against the soul of the upright, to give decisions against those who have done no wrong.

⁶ They put to death the widow and the guest, they take the lives of children who have no father;

⁶ Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.

⁷ Keep yourselves far from any false business; never let the upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin.

⁸ Take no rewards in a cause: for rewards make blind those who have eyes to see, and make the decisions of the upright false.

⁹ Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land.

¹⁵ Do no wrong in your judging: do not give thought to the position of the poor, or honour to the position of the great; but be a judge to your neighbour in righteousness.

¹⁸ Judging uprightly in the cause of the widow and of the child who has no father, and giving food and clothing in his mercy to the man from a strange country.

¹⁸ You are to make judges and overseers in all your towns which the Lord your God gives you, for every tribe: and they are to be upright men, judging the people in righteousness.

¹⁹ You are not to be moved in your judging by a man's position, you are not to take rewards; for rewards make the eyes of the wise man blind, and the decisions of the upright false.

²⁰ Let righteousness be your guide, so that you may have life, and take for your heritage the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁰ So that in all your land, which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, no man may be wrongly put to death, for which you will be responsible.

¹¹ But if any man has hate for his neighbour, and waiting for him secretly makes an attack on him and gives him a blow causing his death, and then goes in flight to one of these towns;

¹² The responsible men of his town are to send and take him, and give him up to the one who has the right of punishment to be put to death.

¹³ Have no pity on him, so that Israel may be clear from the crime of putting a man to death without cause, and it will be well for you.

⁷ If a man takes by force one of his countrymen, the children of Israel, using him as his property or getting a price for him, that thief is to be put to death: so you are to put away evil from among you.

¹ If there is an argument between men and they go to law with one another, let the judges give their decision for the upright, and against the wrongdoer.

¹⁹ Cursed is he who gives a wrong decision in the cause of a man from a strange land, or of one without a father, or of a widow. And let all the people say, So be it.

³ The God of Israel said, the word of the Rock of Israel came to me: When an upright king is ruling over men, when he is ruling in the fear of God,

⁴ And because of the death of those who had done no wrong, for he made Jerusalem full of the blood of the upright; and the Lord had no forgiveness for it.

⁹ You have sent widows away without hearing their cause, and you have taken away the support of the child who has no father.

⁹ The child without a father is forced from its mother's breast, and they take the young children of the poor for debt.

⁷ When I went out of my door to go up to the town, and took my seat in the public place,

⁸ The young men saw me, and went away, and the old men got up from their seats;

⁹ The rulers kept quiet, and put their hands on their mouths;

¹⁰ The chiefs kept back their words, and their tongues were joined to the roofs of their mouths.

¹¹ For when it came to their ears, men said that I was truly happy; and when their eyes saw, they gave witness to me;

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.

⁵ A father to those who have no father, a judge of the widows, is God in his holy place.

² May he be a judge of your people in righteousness, and make true decisions for the poor.

³ May the mountains give peace to the people, and the hills righteousness.

⁴ May he be a judge of the poor among the people, may he give salvation to the children of those who are in need; by him let the violent be crushed.

²² Do no wrong to a widow, or to a child whose father is dead.