Do not strike them dead suddenly, because then my people might forget the lesson. ¹  Use your power to make them homeless vagabonds and then bring them down, O Lord who shields us! ² 

God settles those who have been deserted in their own homes; ¹  he frees prisoners and grants them prosperity. ²  But sinful rebels live in the desert. ³ 

Learn to do what is right! Promote justice! Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! ¹  Take up the cause of the orphan! Defend the rights of the widow! ² 

Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ¹  those who also accumulate landed property ²  until there is no land left, ³  and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ⁴ 

to keep the poor from getting fair treatment, and to deprive ¹  the oppressed among my people of justice, so they can steal what widows own, and loot what belongs to orphans. ² 

The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched from thirst. I, the Lord, will respond to their prayers; ¹  I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

I will cause enemies to blow through Elam from every direction like the winds blowing in from the four quarters of heaven. I will scatter the people of Elam to the four winds. There will not be any nation where the refugees of Elam will not go. ¹ 

“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame, and assemble the outcasts whom I injured. ¹ 

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

I was a stranger and you did not receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’

Then they too will answer, ¹  ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give you whatever you needed?’

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ¹ 

They were stoned, sawed apart, ¹  murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated

Pure and undefiled religion before ¹  God the Father ²  is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Your officials are rebels, ¹  they associate with ²  thieves. All of them love bribery, and look for ³  payoffs. ⁴  They do not take up the cause of the orphan, ⁵  or defend the rights of the widow. ⁶ 

For a fool speaks disgraceful things; ¹  his mind plans out sinful deeds. ²  He commits godless deeds ³  and says misleading things about the Lord; he gives the hungry nothing to satisfy their appetite ⁴  and gives the thirsty nothing to drink. ⁵ 

¹ So I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. For from the least important to the most important of them, all of them are greedy for dishonest gain. Prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.

The Lord says, “Do what is just and right. Deliver those who have been robbed from those ¹  who oppress them. Do not exploit or mistreat foreigners who live in your land, children who have no fathers, or widows. ²  Do not kill innocent people ³  in this land.

Look, at that time I will deal with those who mistreated you. I will rescue the lame sheep ¹  and gather together the scattered sheep. I will take away their humiliation and make the whole earth admire and respect them. ² 

For the Lord who rules over all says to me that for his own glory ¹  he has sent me to the nations that plundered you – for anyone who touches you touches the pupil ²  of his ³  eye.