¹⁶ A father I `am' to the needy, And the cause I have not known I search out.

⁷ The righteous knoweth the plea of the poor, The wicked understandeth not knowledge.

² The honour of God `is' to hide a thing, And the honour of kings to search out a matter.

⁵ Father of the fatherless, and judge of the widows, `Is' God in His holy habitation.

¹⁸ (But from my youth He grew up with me as `with' a father, And from the belly of my mother I am led.)

⁷ and he is supporting Hadassah -- she `is' Esther -- daughter of his uncle, for she hath neither father nor mother, and the young woman `is' of fair form, and of good appearance, and at the death of her father and her mother hath Mordecai taken her to him for a daughter.

²⁷ religion pure and undefiled with the God and Father is this, to look after orphans and widows in their tribulation -- unspotted to keep himself from the world.

¹ Become, then, followers of God, as children beloved,

⁴ They turn aside the needy from the way, Together have hid the poor of the earth.

¹⁶ then come in do two women, harlots, unto the king, and stand before him,

¹⁷ and the one woman saith, `O, my lord, I and this woman are dwelling in one house, and I bring forth with her, in the house;

¹⁸ and it cometh to pass on the third day of my bringing forth, that this woman also bringeth forth, and we `are' together, there is no stranger with us in the house, save we two, in the house.

¹⁹ And the son of this woman dieth at night, because she hath lain upon it,

²⁰ and she riseth in the middle of the night, and taketh my son from beside me -- and thy handmaid is asleep -- and layeth it in her bosom, and her dead son she hath laid in my bosom;

²¹ and I rise in the morning to suckle my son, and lo, dead; and I consider concerning it in the morning, and lo, it was not my son whom I did bear.'

²² And the other woman saith, `Nay, but my son `is' the living, and thy son the dead;' and this `one' saith, `Nay, but thy son `is' the dead, and my son the living.' And they speak before the king.

²³ And the king saith, `This `one' saith, This `is' my son, the living, and thy son `is' the dead; and that `one' saith, Nay, but thy son `is' the dead, and my son the living.'

²⁴ And the king saith, `Take for me a sword;' and they bring the sword before the king,

²⁵ and the king saith, `Cut the living child into two, and give the half to the one, and the half to the other.'

²⁶ And the woman whose son `is' the living one saith unto the king (for her bowels yearned over her son), yea, she saith, `O, my lord, give to her the living child, and put it not at all to death;' and this `one' saith, `Let it be neither mine or thine -- cut `it'.'

²⁷ And the king answereth and saith, `Give ye to her the living child, and put it not at all to death; she `is' its mother.'

²⁸ And all Israel hear of the judgment that the king hath judged, and fear because of the king, for they have seen that the wisdom of God `is' in his heart, to do judgment.

⁸ `When anything is too hard for thee for judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke -- matters of strife within thy gates -- then thou hast risen, and gone up unto the place on which Jehovah thy God doth fix,

⁹ and hast come in unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the judge who is in those days, and hast inquired, and they have declared to thee the word of judgment,

¹⁰ and thou hast done according to the tenor of the word which they declare to thee (`they' of that place which Jehovah doth choose; and thou hast observed to do according to all that they direct thee.

¹⁴ and thou hast enquired, and searched, and asked diligently, and lo, truth; the thing is established; this abomination hath been done in thy midst:

²⁶ and they have judged the people at all times; the hard matter they bring in unto Moses, and every small matter they judge themselves.