What is your verdict?” ¹  They ²  answered, “He is guilty and deserves ³  death.”

Keep your distance ¹  from a false charge ²  – do not kill the innocent and the righteous, ³  for I will not justify the wicked. ⁴ 

(They gave their word ¹  to send away their wives; their guilt offering was a ram from the flock for their guilt.)

Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah. ¹ 

keeping loyal love for thousands, ¹  forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression ²  of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

when it happens that he sins and he is found guilty, ¹  then he must return whatever he had stolen, or whatever he had extorted, or the thing that he had held in trust, ²  or the lost thing that he had found,

‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, ¹  forgiving iniquity and transgression, ²  but by no means clearing ³  the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’ ⁴ 

If you refrain from making a vow, it will not be sinful.

Condemn them, ¹  O God! May their own schemes be their downfall! ²  Drive them away ³  because of their many acts of insurrection, ⁴  for they have rebelled against you.

But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin” ¹ 

or when a person swears an oath, speaking thoughtlessly ¹  with his lips, whether to do evil or to do good, with regard to anything which the individual might speak thoughtlessly in an oath, even if he did not realize it, but he himself has later come to know it and is guilty with regard to one of these oaths ²  –

you are guilty because of the blood you shed and defiled by the idols you made. You have hastened the day of your doom; ¹  the end of your years has come. ²  Therefore I will make ³  you an object of scorn to the nations, an object to be mocked by all lands.

If controversy arises between people, ¹  they should go to court for judgment. When the judges ²  hear the case, they shall exonerate ³  the innocent but condemn ⁴  the guilty.

Then, ¹  if the guilty person is sentenced to a beating, ²  the judge shall force him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of blows his wicked behavior deserves. ³ 

If I am guilty, ¹  woe ²  to me, and if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head; ³  I am full of shame, ⁴  and satiated with my affliction. ⁵ 

Israel was set apart to the Lord; they were like the first fruits of a harvest to him. ¹  All who tried to devour them were punished; disaster came upon them,” says the Lord.’”

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. ¹  But they no longer have any excuse for their sin.

The one who acquits the guilty and the one who condemns the innocent ¹  – both of them are an abomination to the Lord. ² 

It is terrible ¹  to show partiality ²  to the wicked, ³  by depriving ⁴  a righteous man of justice.

But there will be delight ¹  for those who convict ²  the guilty, ³  and a pleasing blessing ⁴  will come on them.