⁹ Let your mouth be open, judging rightly, and give right decisions in the cause of the poor and those in need.

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.

¹⁶ And at that time I gave orders to your judges, saying, Let all questions between your brothers come before you for hearing, and give decisions uprightly between a man and his brother or one from another nation who is with him.

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.

¹⁵ Are you to be a king because you make more use of cedar than your father? did not your father take food and drink and do right, judging in righteousness, and then it was well for him?

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.

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.

¹¹ So because the poor man is crushed under your feet, and you take taxes from him of grain: you have made for yourselves houses of cut stone, but you will not take your rest in them; the fair vine-gardens planted by your hands will not give you wine.

¹² For I have seen how your evil-doing is increased and how strong are your sins, you troublers of the upright, who take rewards and do wrong to the cause of the poor in the public place.

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:

⁹ Be full of joy, O daughter of Zion; give a glad cry, O daughter of Jerusalem: see, your king comes to you: he is upright and has overcome; gentle and seated on an ass, on a young ass.

²⁴ Let not your decisions be based on what you see, but on righteousness.

⁹ You have been a lover of righteousness and a hater of evil; and so God, your God, has put the oil of joy on your head more than on the heads of those who are with you.

¹¹ And the heaven was open; and I saw a white horse, and he who was seated on it was named Certain and True; and he is judging and making war in righteousness.

²⁷ For this cause, O King, let my suggestion be pleasing to you, and let your sins be covered by righteousness and your evil-doing by mercy to the poor, so that the time of your well-being may be longer.

⁵ See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will give to David a true Branch, and he will be ruling as king, acting wisely, doing what is right, and judging uprightly in the land.

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.

¹⁵ And David was king over all Israel, judging and giving right decisions for all his people.

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.

¹ <To the chief music-maker; put to Al-tashheth. Michtam. Of David.> Is there righteousness in your mouths, O you gods? are you upright judges, O you sons of men?

² The purposes of your hearts are evil; your hands are full of cruel doings on the earth.

¹ <Of Solomon.> Give the king your authority, O God, and your righteousness to the king's son.

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

¹² Evil-doing is disgusting to kings: for the seat of the ruler is based on righteousness.

⁸ A king on the seat of judging puts to flight all evil with his eyes.

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.

⁴ But he will do right in the cause of the poor, and give wise decisions for those in the land who are in need; and the rod of his mouth will come down on the cruel, and with the breath of his lips he will put an end to the evil-doer.

¹ See, a king will be ruling in righteousness, and chiefs will give right decisions.

² And a man will be as a safe place from the wind, and a cover from the storm; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shade of a great rock in a waste land.

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.

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.