So that a defiled one should not reign, lest the people be ensnared.
But they did not obey, and Menashsheh led them astray to do more evil than the nations whom יהוה had destroyed before the children of Yisra’ĕl.
that the singing of the wrong is short-lived, and the joy of the defiled one is but for a moment?
Should the one who hates right-ruling govern? Or would you declare a most righteous one wrong?
For His eyes are on the ways of man, and He sees all his steps.
And when He is silent, who would then condemn? And when He hides His face, who then sees Him, whether it is against a nation or a man alone?
For has anyone said to Ěl, ‘I have taken away, I do not act corruptly.
But He saves the needy from the sword of their mouth, from the clutches of the strong.
The wrong walk around on every side, When worthlessness is exalted among the sons of men.
Wisdom is better than weapons of conflict, but one sinner destroys much good.
“I gave you a sovereign in My displeasure, but I took him away in My wrath.
“Ephrayim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he walked after the command when it pleased him.
“For the laws of Omri are strictly observed, and all the works of the house of Aḥab, and you walk in their counsels. Therefore I give you for a ruin, and your inhabitants for a hissing, and let you bear the reproach of My people.”