Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead, ¹  those who are always instituting unfair regulations, ² 

For each one will carry ¹  his own load.

You, whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind,

You led us into a trap; ¹  you caused us to suffer. ² 

When I tried to make sense of this, it was troubling to me. ¹ 

Cruel rulers ¹  are not your allies, those who make oppressive laws. ² 

Deliver me ¹  from oppressive men, so that I can keep ²  your precepts.

For ¹  this is the love of God: ²  that we keep his commandments. ³  And his commandments do not weigh us down,

There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt ¹  to stay for a while ²  because the famine was severe. ³ 

I hate your new moon festivals and assemblies; they are a burden that I am tired of carrying.

We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord; we turned back from following our God. We stir up ¹  oppression and rebellion; we tell lies we concocted in our minds. ² 

They have treated father and mother with contempt ¹  within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow ²  within you.

In humiliation ¹  justice was taken from him. ²  Who can describe his posterity? ³  For his life was taken away ⁴  from the earth.” ⁵ 

The Lord did so; a ¹  thick ²  swarm of flies came into ³  Pharaoh’s house and into the houses ⁴  of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined ⁵  because of the swarms of flies.

The Midianites ¹  overwhelmed Israel. ²  Because of Midian the Israelites made shelters ³  for themselves in the hills, as well as caves and strongholds.

For their oppressive yoke and the club that strikes their shoulders, the cudgel the oppressor uses on them, ¹  you have shattered, as in the day of Midian’s defeat. ² 

For you are a protector for the poor, a protector for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm, a shade from the heat. Though the breath of tyrants ¹  is like a winter rainstorm, ² 

The one who lives ¹  uprightly ²  and speaks honestly; the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures and rejects a bribe; ³  the one who does not plot violent crimes ⁴  and does not seek to harm others ⁵  –

They will not be hungry or thirsty; the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them, ¹  for one who has compassion on them will guide them; he will lead them to springs of water.

The Lord is like a lion who has left his lair. ¹  So their lands will certainly ²  be laid waste by the warfare of the oppressive nation ³  and by the fierce anger of the Lord.”