I will grant them no reprieve,
Because they sell the innocent for silver
and the destitute for a pair of shoes.
They grind the heads of the poor into the earth
And thrust the humble out of their way…Look at the tumult seething among her people
and at the oppression in her midst;
what do they care for honesty
who hoard in their palaces the gains of crimes and violence?…

You who oppress the poor and crush the destitute,
who say to your lords, ‘Bring us drink.’

…your time is coming.

You that turn justice upside down
and bring righteousness to the ground,
you that hate a man who brings the wrongdoer to court
and loathe him who speaks the whole truth
for all this, because you levy taxes on the poor

enthrone justice in the courts…

Let justice roll on like a river
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream…

I loathe the arrogance of Jacob…

Yet you have turned into venom the process of law
and justice itself into poison,
you who are jubilant over a nothing and boast,
‘Have we not won power by our own strength?’

Listen to this, you who grind the destitute and plunder the humble, you who say, ‘. . . tiling the scales fraudulently, and selling the dust of the wheat; that we may buy the poor for silver and the destitute for a pair of shoes?

–a sheep farmer

______

enthrone justice in the courts…

Let justice roll on like a river
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream…

I loathe the arrogance of Jacob…