¹⁰ He opens their ears to instruction
    and commands that they return from iniquity.^(A)

¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted by their affliction
    and opens their ear by adversity.^(A)

⁵ The Lord God has opened my ear,
    and I was not rebellious;
    I did not turn backward.^(A)

¹⁶ Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove your evil deeds
    from before my eyes;
cease to do evil;^(A)
17     learn to do good;
seek justice;
    rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
    plead for the widow.^(B)

⁴ “To you, O people, I call,
    and my cry is to all who live.
⁵ O simple ones, learn prudence;
    acquire intelligence, you who lack it.^(A)

¹⁶ then he opens their ears
    and terrifies them with warnings,^(A)
17 that he may turn them aside from their deeds
    and keep them from pride,
¹⁸ to spare their souls from the Pit,
    their lives from traversing the River.
¹⁹ They are also chastened with pain upon their beds
    and with continual strife in their bones,^(B)
20 so that their lives loathe bread
    and their appetites dainty food.^(C)
21 Their flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen,
    and their bones, once invisible, now stick out.^(D)
22 Their souls draw near the Pit
    and their lives to those who bring death.^(E)
23 Then, if there should be for one of them an angel,
    a mediator, one of a thousand,
    one who declares a person upright,^(F)