If you see the oppression of the poor, and denial of right-ruling and righteousness in a province, do not be astonished at the matter. For a higher than the high is guarding, and there are higher ones over them.
He who walks righteously and speaks what is straight, he who rejects the gain of oppressions, who keeps his hands from accepting bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil –
For the vineyard of יהוה of hosts is the house of Yisra’ĕl, and the man of Yehuḏah is His pleasant plant. He looked for right-ruling, but see, oppression; for righteousness, but see, weeping.
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loosen the tight cords of wrongness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to exempt the oppressed, and to break off every yoke?
“They have despised father and mother within you. They have oppressed the stranger in your midst. They have wronged the fatherless and the widow within you.
Both hands are on the evil, to do it well. The prince asks for gifts, the judge seeks a bribe, and the great man speaks the desire of his being. And they weave it together.
And soldiers also asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be satisfied with your pay.”
And the children of Yisra’ĕl cried out to יהוה, because he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he harshly oppressed the children of Yisra’ĕl.