I also gave ¹  them decrees ²  which were not good and regulations by which they could not live.

Suppose I say to the wicked, ‘You must certainly die,’ but he turns from his sin and does what is just and right.

None of the sins he has committed will be counted ¹  against him. He has done what is just and right; he will certainly live.

When the wicked turns from his sin and does what is just and right, he will live because of it.

I will put my Spirit within you; ¹  I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes ²  and carefully observe my regulations. ³ 

I will commit myself to you ¹  forever; I will commit myself to you in ²  righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and tender compassion.

Ephraim will be oppressed, ¹  crushed ²  under judgment, ³  because he was determined to pursue worthless idols. ⁴ 

Therefore, I will certainly cut ¹  you into pieces at the hands of the prophets; ²  I will certainly kill you ³  in fulfillment of my oracles of judgment; ⁴  for ⁵  my judgment ⁶  will come forth like the light of the dawn. ⁷ 

They ¹  utter empty words, ²  taking ³  false oaths and making empty ⁴  agreements. Therefore legal disputes sprout up like poisonous weeds ⁵  in the furrows of a plowed field.

But you must return ¹  to your God, by maintaining love and justice, and by waiting ²  for your God to return to you. ³ 

“You are to put the Urim and the Thummim ¹  into the breastpiece of decision; and they are to be over Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord. Aaron is to bear the decisions ²  of the Israelites over his heart before the Lord continually.

They ¹  must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly ²  and the great alike. Nor should they be intimidated by human beings, for judgment belongs to God. If the matter being adjudicated is too difficult for them, they should bring it before me for a hearing.

When all Israel heard about the judicial decision which the king had rendered, they respected ¹  the king, for they realized ²  that he possessed supernatural wisdom ³  to make judicial decisions.

May the Lord our God be constantly aware of these requests of mine I have presented to him, ¹  so that he might vindicate ²  his servant and his people Israel as the need arises.

The king of Assyria was told, ¹  “The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land, so he has sent lions among them. They are killing the people ²  because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.”

To this very day they observe their earlier practices. They do not worship ¹  the Lord; they do not obey the rules, regulations, law, and commandments that the Lord gave ²  the descendants of Jacob, whom he renamed Israel.

They seek me day after day; they want to know my requirements, ¹  like a nation that does what is right and does not reject the law of their God. They ask me for just decrees; they want to be near God.

Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations ¹  and the countries around her. ²  Indeed, they ³  have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes.

“Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you are more arrogant ¹  than the nations around you, ²  you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even ³  carried out the regulations of the nations around you!

He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him ¹  a tree. ²  When Moses ³  threw it into the water, the water became safe to drink. There the Lord ⁴  made for them ⁵  a binding ordinance, ⁶  and there he tested ⁷  them.