Psalm 82

English Standard Version

Rescue the Weak and Needy

A Psalm of ^(A)Asaph.

82 ^(B)God ^(C)has taken his place in the divine council;
    in the midst of ^(D)the gods he ^(E)holds judgment:
²“How long will you judge unjustly
    and ^(F)show partiality to ^(G)the wicked? Selah
³^(H)Give justice to ^(I)the weak and the fatherless;
    ^(J)maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
⁴^(K)Rescue the weak and the needy;
    ^(L)deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

⁵^(M)They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
^(N)they walk about in darkness;
^(O)all the foundations of the earth are ^(P)shaken.

⁶^(Q)I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;
⁷nevertheless, like men ^(R)you shall die,
and fall like any prince.”^[a]

⁸^(S)Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for you shall ^(T)inherit all the nations!

Footnotes

Psalm 82:7 Or fall as one man, O princes

Amos 2:4-11

English Standard Version

Judgment on Judah

⁴Thus says the Lord:

^(A)“For three transgressions of Judah,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because ^(B)they have rejected the law of the Lord,
    and have not kept his statutes,
but ^(C)their lies have led them astray,
    those after which their fathers walked.
⁵So ^(D)I will send a fire upon Judah,
    and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

Judgment on Israel

⁶Thus says the Lord:

^(E)“For three transgressions of Israel,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because ^(F)they sell the righteous for ^(G)silver,
    and the needy for a pair of sandals—
⁷those who trample the head of the poor ^(H)into the dust of the earth
    and ^(I)turn aside the way of the afflicted;
^(J)a man and his father go in to the same girl,
    so that my holy name is profaned;
⁸they lay themselves down beside every altar
    on garments ^(K)taken in pledge,
and in the house of their God they drink
    the wine of those who have been fined.

⁹“Yet ^(L)it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,
    ^(M)whose height was like the height of the cedars
    and who was as strong as the oaks;
^(N)I destroyed his fruit above
    and his roots beneath.
¹⁰^(O)Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt
    ^(P)and led you forty years in the wilderness,
    ^(Q)to possess the land of the Amorite.
¹¹And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,
    and some of your young men for ^(R)Nazirites.
    Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?”
declares the Lord.

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Acts 7:9-16

English Standard Version

⁹“And the patriarchs, ^(A)jealous of Joseph, ^(B)sold him into Egypt; but ^(C)God was with him ¹⁰and rescued him out of all his afflictions and ^(D)gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ^(E)who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. ¹¹Now ^(F)there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. ¹²^(G)But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. ¹³And ^(H)on the second visit ^(I)Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and ^(J)Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴And ^(K)Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, ^(L)seventy-five persons in all. ¹⁵And ^(M)Jacob went down into Egypt, and ^(N)he died, he ^(O)and our fathers, ¹⁶and ^(P)they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that ^(Q)Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.