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

¹⁴ You have seen it; for your eyes are on sorrow and grief, to take it into your hand: the poor man puts his faith in you; you have been the helper of the child who has no father.

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.

¹¹ Put in my care your children who have no father, and I will keep them safe; and let your widows put their faith in me.

¹⁴ From his house he keeps watch on all who are living on the earth;

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.

³ Give ear to the cause of the poor and the children without fathers; let those who are troubled and in need have their rights.

⁴ Be the saviour of the poor and those who have nothing: take them out of the hand of the evil-doers.

⁹ The Lord takes care of those who are in a strange land; he gives help to the widow and to the child who has no father; but he sends destruction on the way of sinners.

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.

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.

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

³ And there was a widow in that town, and she kept on coming to him and saying, Give me my right against the man who has done me wrong.

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,

⁵ Because this widow is a trouble to me, I will give her her right; for if not, I will be completely tired out by her frequent coming.

⁶ And the Lord said, Give ear to the words of the evil judge.

⁷ And will not God do right in the cause of his saints, whose cries come day and night to his ears, though he is long in doing it?

² So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which you may be for ever present.

¹ Let it then be your desire to be like God, as well-loved children;

²⁷ Then the priests and the Levites gave the people a blessing: and the voice of their prayer went up to the holy place of God in heaven.

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.

¹⁶ If I kept back the desire of the poor; if the widow's eye was looking for help to no purpose;

¹⁷ If I kept my food for myself, and did not give some of it to the child with no father;

¹⁸ To give decision for the child without a father and for the broken-hearted, so that the man of the earth may no longer be feared.

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

¹⁵ For this is the word of him who is high and lifted up, whose resting-place is eternal, whose name is Holy: my resting-place is in the high and holy place, and with him who is crushed and poor in spirit, to give life to the spirit of the poor, and to make strong the heart of the crushed.

¹ The Lord says, Heaven is the seat of my power, and earth is the resting-place for my feet: what sort of house will you make for me, and what place will be my resting-place?

³ Take with you words, and come back to the Lord; say to him, Let there be forgiveness for all wrongdoing, so that we may take what is good, and give in payment the fruit of our lips.

⁴⁸ But still, the Most High has not his resting-place in houses made with hands, as the prophet says,

⁴⁹ Heaven is the seat of my power, and earth is a resting-place for my feet: what sort of house will you make for me, says the Lord, or what is my place of rest?

¹⁵ So, looking down from your holy place in heaven, send your blessing on your people Israel and on the land which you have given us, as you said in your oath to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.