⁷ The righteous know the rights of the poor;
    the wicked have no such understanding.^(A)

¹ O Lord, our Sovereign,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

3 And I said:
Listen, you heads of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel!
Should you not know justice?—^(A)
2     you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin off my people^[a]
    and the flesh off their bones,^(B)
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
    flay their skin off them,
break their bones in pieces,
    and chop them up like meat^[b] in a kettle,
    like flesh in a caldron.^(C)

¹⁴     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;^(A)
16     ruin and misery are in their paths,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
    then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
    says the Lord.^(A)
17 But your eyes and heart
    are only on your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
    and for practicing oppression and violence.^(B)

⁷ When I went out to the gate of the city,
    when I took my seat in the square,
⁸ the young men saw me and withdrew,
    and the aged rose up and stood;
⁹ the nobles refrained from talking
    and laid their hands on their mouths;^(A)
10 the voices of princes were hushed,
    and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.^(B)
11 When the ear heard, it commended me,
    and when the eye saw, it approved,
¹² because I delivered the poor who cried
    and the orphan who had no helper.^(C)
13 The blessing of the wretched came upon me,
    and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.^(D)
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
    my justice was like a robe and a turban.^(E)
15 I was eyes to the blind
    and feet to the lame.
¹⁶ I was a father to the needy,
    and I championed the cause of the stranger.^(F)
17 I broke the fangs of the unrighteous
    and made them drop their prey from their teeth.^(G)