¹⁴ And removed backward is judgment, And righteousness afar off standeth, For truth hath been feeble in the street, And straightforwardness is not able to enter,

⁴ Therefore doth law cease, And judgment doth not go forth for ever, For the wicked is compassing the righteous, Therefore wrong judgment goeth forth.

¹ Wo `to' the rebellious and polluted, The oppressing city!

² She hath not hearkened to the voice, She hath not accepted instruction, In Jehovah she hath not trusted, Unto her God she hath not drawn near.

³ Her heads in her midst `are' roaring lions, Her judges `are' evening wolves, They have not gnawn the bone in the morning.

³ On the evil `are' both hands to do `it' well, The prince is asking -- also the judge -- for recompence, And the great -- he is speaking the mischief of his soul, And they wrap it up.

⁴ Their best one `is' as a brier, The upright one -- than a thorn-hedge, The day of thy watchmen -- Thy visitation -- hath come. Now is their perplexity.

⁵ Believe not in a friend, trust not in a leader, From her who is lying in thy bosom keep the openings of thy mouth.

⁹ Hear this, I pray you, heads of the house of Jacob, And ye judges of the house of Israel, Who are making judgment abominable, And all uprightness do pervert.

¹⁰ Building up Zion with blood, And Jerusalem with iniquity.

¹¹ Her heads for a bribe do judge, And her priests for hire do teach, And her prophets for silver divine, And on Jehovah they lean, saying, `Is not Jehovah in our midst? Evil doth not come in upon us.'

¹¹ Therefore, because of your trampling on the poor, And the tribute of corn ye take from him, Houses of hewn work ye have built, And ye do not dwell in them, Desirable vineyards ye have planted, And ye do not drink their wine.

³¹ The prophets have prophesied falsely, And the priests bear rule by their means, And My people have loved `it' so, And what do they at its latter end?

²⁷ As a cage full of fowls, So their houses are full of deceit, Therefore they have been great, and are rich.

²⁸ They have been fat, they have shone, Yea, they have overpassed the acts of the evil, Judgment they have not judged, The judgment of the fatherless -- and they prosper, And the judgment of the needy they have not judged.

⁴ There is none calling in righteousness, And there is none pleading in faithfulness, Trusting on emptiness, and speaking falsehood, Conceiving perverseness, and bearing iniquity.

¹ Wo `to' those decreeing decrees of iniquity, And writers who have prescribed perverseness.

² To turn aside from judgment the poor, And to take violently away the judgment Of the afflicted of My people, That widows may be their prey, That the fatherless they may spoil.

²³ Declaring righteous the wicked for a bribe, And the righteousness of the righteous They turn aside from him.

²¹ How hath a faithful city become a harlot? I have filled it `with' judgment, Righteousness lodgeth in it -- now murderers.

¹⁶ And again, I have seen under the sun the place of judgment -- there `is' the wicked; and the place of righteousness -- there `is' the wicked.

² Till when do ye judge perversely? And the face of the wicked lift up? Selah.

³ Judge ye the weak and fatherless, The afflicted and the poor declare righteous.

⁴ Let the weak and needy escape, From the hand of the wicked deliver them.

⁵ They knew not, nor do they understand, In darkness they walk habitually, Moved are all the foundations of earth.

⁷ Ye who are turning to wormwood judgment, And righteousness to the earth have put down,