And when many troubles and afflictions come to them, this song will testify against them, because their descendants will not have forgotten it. For I know what they are prone to do, even before I bring them into the land I swore [to give them]."

"Knowing their works and their thoughts, I have come to gather all nations and languages; they will come and see My glory.

because they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with their neighbors' wives and have spoken a lie in My name, which I did not command them. I am He who knows, and I am a witness." [This is] the LORD's declaration.

For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints, and marrow; it is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart.

No creature is hidden from Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.

[This disaster] happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt and because they had worshiped other gods.

The Israelites secretly did what was not right against the LORD their God. They built high places in all their towns from watchtower to fortified city.

They burned incense on all the high places just like those nations that the LORD had driven out before them. They did evil things, provoking the LORD.

Still, the LORD warned Israel and Judah through every prophet and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments and statutes according to all the law I commanded your ancestors and sent to you through My servants the prophets."

They rejected His statutes and His covenant He had made with their ancestors and the warnings He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, following the surrounding nations the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.

They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire and practiced divination and interpreted omens. They devoted themselves to do what was evil in the LORD's sight and provoked Him.

These two things will happen to you suddenly, in one day: loss of children and widowhood. They will happen to you in their entirety, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.

The LORD says: I will not relent from punishing Israel for three crimes, even four, because they sell a righteous person for silver and a needy person for a pair of sandals.

They trample the heads of the poor on the dust of the ground and block the path of the needy. A man and his father have sexual relations with the same girl, profaning My holy name.

Even the most courageous of the warriors will flee naked on that day-- the LORD's declaration.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.

But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked to have a murderer given to you.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They even killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.

Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who reaped your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

You have condemned-- you have murdered-- the righteous man; he does not resist you.

However, his sons did not walk in his ways-- they turned toward dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.

Do not destroy me along with sinners, or my life along with men of bloodshed

in whose hands are evil schemes, and whose right hands are filled with bribes.

Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love graft and chase after bribes. They do not defend the rights of the fatherless, and the widow's case never comes before them."

The one who lives righteously and speaks rightly, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears from listening to murderous plots and shuts his eyes to avoid endorsing evil--

Her leaders issue rulings for a bribe, her priests teach for payment, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, saying, "Isn't the LORD among us? No calamity will overtake us."

Both hands are good at accomplishing evil: the official and the judge demand a bribe; when the powerful man communicates his evil desire, they plot it together.

They trample the heads of the poor on the dust of the ground and block the path of the needy. A man and his father have sexual relations with the same girl, profaning My holy name.

to keep the poor from getting a fair trial and to deprive the afflicted among my people of justice, so that widows can be their spoil and they can plunder the fatherless.

those who, with [their] speech, accuse a person of wrongdoing, who set a trap at the gate for the mediator, and without cause deprive the righteous of justice.

Crushing all the prisoners of the land beneath one's feet,

"I will come to you in judgment, and I will be ready to witness against sorcerers and adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress the widow and the fatherless, and cheat the wage earner; and against those who deny [justice to] the foreigner. They do not fear Me," says the LORD of Hosts.

They hate the one who convicts [the guilty] at the city gate and despise the one who speaks with integrity.

"Appoint judges and officials for your tribes in all your towns the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

Boaz went to the gate [of the town] and sat down there. Soon, the family redeemer Boaz had spoken about came by. Boaz called him by name and said, "Come over here and sit down." So he went over and sat down.

When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the town square,

City officials stopped talking and covered their mouths with [their] hands.

When they heard me, they blessed me, and when they saw me, they spoke well of me.

The dying man blessed me, and I made the widow's heart rejoice.

I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.

I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.

My roots will have access to water, and the dew will rest on my branches all night.

Men listened to me with expectation, waiting silently for my advice.

They waited for me as for the rain and opened their mouths as for spring showers.

I directed their course and presided as chief. I lived as a king among his troops, like one who comforts those who mourn.

if I ever cast my vote against a fatherless child when I saw that I had support in the [city] gate,

Don't rob a poor man because he is poor, and don't crush the oppressed at the gate,