² Saying, There was a judge in a certain town, who had no fear of God or respect for man:

⁴ And for a time he would not: but later, he said to himself, Though I have no fear of God or respect for man,

⁷ The upright man gives attention to the cause of the poor: the evil-doer gives no thought to it.

¹⁴ Whose mouth is full of curses and bitter words:

¹⁵ Their feet are quick in running after blood;

¹⁶ Destruction and trouble are in their ways;

¹⁷ And of the way of peace they have no knowledge:

¹⁸ There is no fear of God before their eyes.

¹ And I said, Give ear, now, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the people of Israel: is it not for you to have knowledge of what is right?

² You who are haters of good and lovers of evil, pulling off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones;

³ Like meat they take the flesh of my people for their food, skinning them and crushing their bones, yes, cutting them up as if for the pot, like flesh inside the cooking-pot.

⁶ See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been causing death in you.

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.

⁸ You have made little of my holy things, and have made my Sabbaths unclean.

¹ <To the chief music-maker on the Gittith. A Psalm. Of David.> O Lord, our Lord, whose glory is higher than the heavens, how noble is your name in all the earth!

² You have made clear your strength even out of the mouths of babies at the breast, because of those who are against you; so that you may put to shame the cruel and violent man.

³ When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have put in their places;

⁴ What is man, that you keep him in mind? the son of man, that you take him into account?

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.

³ But still there is some good in you, for you have put away the wood pillars out of the land, and have given your heart to the worship of God.

⁴ And Jehoshaphat was living in Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill-country of Ephraim, guiding them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

⁵ And he put judges through all the land, in every walled town of Judah,

⁶ And said to the judges, Take care what you do, for you are judging not for man but for the Lord, and he is with you in the decisions you give.

⁷ So now let the fear of the Lord be in you; do your work with care; for in the Lord our God there is no evil, or respect for high position, or taking of payment to do wrong.

⁸ Then in Jerusalem he gave authority to certain of the Levites and the priests and the heads of families of Israel to give decisions for the Lord, and in the causes of those living in Jerusalem.

⁹ And he gave them their orders, saying, You are to do your work in the fear of the Lord, in good faith and with a true heart.

²¹ But for the rest, take from among the people able men, such as have the fear of God, true men hating profits wrongly made; and put such men over them, to be captains of thousands, captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens;

²² And let them be judges in the causes of the people at all times: and let them put before you all important questions, but in small things let them give decisions themselves: in this way, it will be less hard for you, and they will take the weight off you.

¹⁶ He was judge in the cause of the poor and those in need; then it was well. Was not this to have knowledge of me? says the Lord.

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 The highways are waste, no man is journeying there: the agreement is broken, he has made sport of the towns, he has no thought for man.