If a matter is too difficult for you to judge – bloodshed, ¹  legal claim, ²  or assault ³  – matters of controversy in your villages ⁴  – you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. ⁵ 

Do not blame ¹  your people Israel whom you redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold them accountable for the bloodshed of an innocent person.” ²  Then atonement will be made for the bloodshed.

He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, ¹  for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ² 

Whenever your countrymen who live in the cities bring a case before you ¹  (whether it involves a violent crime ²  or other matters related to the law, commandments, rules, and regulations), warn them that they must not sin against the Lord. If you fail to do so, God will be angry with you and your colleagues; but if you obey, you will be free of guilt. ³ 

Deliver me from evildoers! ¹  Rescue me from violent men! ² 

Bloodthirsty people ¹  hate someone with integrity; ²  as for the upright, they seek his life. ³ 

If the sun has risen on him, then there is blood guilt for him. A thief ¹  must surely make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he will be sold for his theft.

Rescue me from the guilt of murder, ¹  O God, the God who delivers me! Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance. ² 

“Or suppose I were to send a plague into that land, and pour out my rage on it with bloodshed, killing both people and animals.

But upright men will punish them appropriately for their adultery and bloodshed, ¹  because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.

I will send a plague into the city ¹  and bloodshed into its streets; the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it ²  from every side. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

But Ephraim bitterly ¹  provoked him to anger; so he will hold him accountable for the blood he has shed, ²  his Lord ³  will repay him for the contempt he has shown. ⁴ 

The Lord has punished you for ¹  all the spilled blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you rule. Now the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. Disaster has overtaken you, for you are a man of bloodshed!”

You destroy ¹  liars; ²  the Lord despises ³  violent and deceitful people. ⁴ 

Do not sweep me away ¹  with sinners, or execute me along with violent people, ² 

If only ¹  you would kill the wicked, O God! Get away from me, you violent men! ² 

The one who is tormented ¹  by the murder ²  of another will flee to the pit; ³  let no one support him.

(Make the chain, ¹  because the land is full of murder ²  and the city is full of violence.)

I will avenge ¹  their blood which I had not previously acquitted. It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!

Your conscience will not be overwhelmed with guilt ¹  for having poured out innocent blood and for having taken matters into your own hands. When the Lord has granted my lord success, ²  please remember your servant.”