Your justice is like the highest mountains, ¹  your fairness like the deepest sea; you preserve ²  mankind and the animal kingdom. ³ 

It is lofty and pleasing to look at, ¹  a source of joy to the whole earth. ²  Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; ³  it is the city of the great king.

Consider its defenses! ¹  Walk through ²  its fortresses, so you can tell the next generation about it! ³ 

For ²  Solomon. O God, grant the king the ability to make just decisions! ³  Grant the king’s son ⁴  the ability to make fair decisions! ⁵ 

By David. The Lord, my protector, ²  deserves praise ³  – the one who trains my hands for battle, ⁴  and my fingers for war,

I saw something else on earth: ¹  In the place of justice, there was wickedness, and in the place of fairness, ²  there was wickedness.

The Beloved to the Maidens: I am dark but lovely, O maidens ¹  of Jerusalem, dark ²  like the tents of Qedar, ³  lovely ⁴  like the tent curtains ⁵  of Salmah. ⁶ 

Your lips are like a scarlet thread; ¹  your mouth is lovely. Your forehead ²  behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate.

The Maidens to The Beloved: Why is your beloved better than others, ¹  O most beautiful of women? Why is your beloved better than others, that you would command us in this manner?

The Lover to His Beloved: My darling, you are as beautiful as Tirzah, ¹  as lovely as Jerusalem, ²  as awe-inspiring ³  as bannered armies!

How tragic that the once-faithful city has become a prostitute! ¹  She was once a center of ²  justice, fairness resided in her, but now only murderers. ³ 

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 

I will make justice the measuring line, fairness the plumb line; hail will sweep away the unreliable refuge, ¹  the floodwaters will overwhelm the hiding place.

For the fortress is neglected; the once-crowded ¹  city is abandoned. Hill ²  and watchtower are permanently uninhabited. ³  Wild donkeys love to go there, and flocks graze there. ⁴ 

Instead the Lord will rule there as our mighty king. ¹  Rivers and wide streams will flow through it; ²  no war galley will enter; ³  no large ships will sail through. ⁴ 

Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns; thickets and weeds will grow ¹  in her fortified cities. Jackals will settle there; ostriches will live there. ² 

You will be reestablished when I vindicate you. ¹  You will not experience oppression; ²  indeed, you will not be afraid. You will not be terrified, ³  for nothing frightening ⁴  will come near you.

This is what the Lord says, “Promote ¹  justice! Do what is right! For I am ready to deliver you; I am ready to vindicate you openly. ² 

No, this is the kind of fast I want. ¹  I want you ²  to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, ³  and to break every burdensome yoke.

For this reason deliverance ¹  is far from us ²  and salvation does not reach us. We wait for light, ³  but see only darkness; ⁴  we wait for ⁵  a bright light, ⁶  but live ⁷  in deep darkness. ⁸