Therefore the Law is ignored, And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out confused.

因此律法放松，公理也不显明；恶人围困义人，所以公理显然颠倒。”

因此律法无效，公理从未彰显。恶人围困义人，所以公理遭受扭曲。

因此律法无效，公理从未彰显。恶人围困义人，所以公理遭受扭曲。

因此律法失效，正义不彰，恶人包围义人，正义被扭曲。

因此律法不能生效（“律法不能生效”原文作“律法松懈”），公理无法彰显。因为恶人把义人包围，所以公理颠倒。

因此律法放鬆，公理也不顯明；惡人圍困義人，所以公理顯然顛倒。

因此律法無效，公理從未彰顯。惡人圍困義人，所以公理遭受扭曲。

因此律法無效，公理從未彰顯。惡人圍困義人，所以公理遭受扭曲。

因此律法失效，正義不彰，惡人包圍義人，正義被扭曲。

因此律法不能生效（“律法不能生效”原文作“律法鬆懈”），公理無法彰顯。因為惡人把義人包圍，所以公理顛倒。

因此律法僵化，公理總不出現。因為惡人圍困着義人，故此公理就使出現、也彎曲了。

緣此法律廢弛、公義不彰、惡者環繞義人、公義顯然違反、

惡者枉法、環攻義人、律例俱廢、伸其冤者、卒無一人。

緣此律法已廢、是非不循理而決、惡者圍攻善人、以致曲直顛倒、○

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

The law can’t do what it’s supposed to do. Fairness never comes out on top. Sinful people surround those who do what is right. So people are never treated fairly.

So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.

This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.

Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

Therefore the law is slacked, and justice doth never go forth; for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore justice goeth forth perverted.

This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.

Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

For this reason the law lacks power, and justice is never carried out. Indeed, the wicked intimidate the innocent. For this reason justice is perverted.

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.

How the faithful city has become a prostitute, She who was full of justice! Righteousness once dwelt in her, But now murderers.Your silver has become waste matter, Your drink diluted with water.Your rulers are rebels And companions of thieves; Everyone loves a bribe And chases after gifts. They do not obtain justice for the orphan, Nor does the widow’s case come before them.

Why do the wicked still live, Grow old, and also become very powerful?

It is time for the Lord to act, For they have broken Your Law.

Righteous are You, Lord, when I plead my case with You; Nevertheless I would discuss matters of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease?

Then He said to me,“ The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood, and the city is full of perversion; for they say,‘ The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’

Can a throne of destruction be allied with You, One which devises mischief by decree?They band themselves together against the life of the righteous And condemn the innocent to death.

“ You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute.

Offending and denying the Lord, And turning away from our God, Speaking oppression and revolt, Conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart.Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands far away; For truth has stumbled in the street, And uprightness cannot enter.Truth is lacking, And one who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey. Now the Lord saw, And it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice.

Do you indeed speak righteousness, you gods? Do you judge fairly, you sons of mankind?No, in heart you practice injustice; On earth you clear a way for the violence of your hands.

They speak mere words, With worthless oaths they make covenants; And judgment sprouts like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in the midst of her.Her priests have done violence to My Law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have closed their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am defiled among them.Her leaders within her are like wolves tearing the prey, by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to make dishonest profit.And her prophets have coated with whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying,‘ This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery, and they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the stranger without justice.I searched for a man among them who would build up a wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.

You shall not follow the crowd in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to join together with a crowd in order to pervert justice;

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

You shall not distort justice, you shall not show partiality; and you shall not accept a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous.

For I know your offenses are many and your sins are great, You who are hostile to the righteous and accept bribes, And turn away the poor from justice at the gate.

Do we then nullify the Law through faith? Far from it! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

Now when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus to put Him to death;and they bound Him and led Him away, and handed Him over to Pilate the governor.

Like a cage full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have become great and rich.They are fat, they are sleek, They also excel in deeds of wickedness; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the orphan, so that they may be successful; And they do not defend the rights of the poor.Shall I not punish them for these things?’ declares the Lord,‘ Or shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?’

The godly person has perished from the land, And there is no upright person among mankind. All of them lie in wait for bloodshed; Each of them hunts the other with a net.As for evil, both hands do it well. The leader asks for a bribe, also the judge, And the great one speaks the capricious desire of his soul; So they plot it together.The best of them is like a thorn bush, The most upright like a thorn hedge. The day when you post your watchmen, Your punishment is coming. Then their confusion will occur.

“ Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city,so that upon you will fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

How long, Lord, shall the wicked— How long shall the wicked triumph?

Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, and you have now become betrayers and murderers of Him;

Woe to those who devise wrongdoing, Who practice evil on their beds! When morning comes, they do it, Because it is in the power of their hands.They covet fields, so they seize them; And houses, so they take them. They exploit a man and his house, A person and his inheritance.

But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?Do they not blaspheme the good name by which you have been called?

He was also saying to them,“ You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

Now the chief priests and the entire Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death.They did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on two came forward,and said,“ This man stated,‘ I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.’ ”The high priest stood up and said to Him,“ Do You offer no answer for what these men are testifying against You?”But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him,“ I place You under oath by the living God, to tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.”Jesus* said to him,“ You have said it yourself. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”Then the high priest tore his robes and said,“ He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? See, you have now heard the blasphemy;what do you think?” They answered,“ He deserves death!”

When it was day, the Jews formed a conspiracy and put themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.There were more than forty who formed this plot.They came to the chief priests and the elders and said,“ We have put ourselves under an oath to taste nothing until we have killed Paul.

And I said,“ Hear now, you leaders of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know justice?You who hate good and love evil, Who tear off their skin from them And their flesh from their bones,Who eat the flesh of my people, Strip off their skin from them, Smash their bones, And chop them up as for the pot, And as meat in a cauldron!”

But Jeremiah said,“ A lie! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans”; yet he would not listen to him. So Irijah arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.Then the officials were angry at Jeremiah and they beat him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made it into the prison.For Jeremiah had come into the dungeon, that is, the vaulted cell; and Jeremiah stayed there many days.

Rescue me from those who practice injustice, And save me from men of bloodshed.

They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said,“ Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

And all the people replied,“ His blood shall be on us and on our children!”Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus flogged, he handed Him over to be crucified.

When King Jehoiakim and all his warriors and all the officials heard his words, then the king sought to put him to death; but Uriah heard about it, and he was afraid, so he fled and went to Egypt.Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan the son of Achbor and certain men with him, to Egypt.And they brought Uriah from Egypt and led him to King Jehoiakim, who killed him with a sword and threw his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

For no guilt of mine, they run and take their stand against me. Stir Yourself to help me, and see!

If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?”

Yet when Jeremiah finished speaking everything that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying,“ You must die!

God takes His position in His assembly; He judges in the midst of the gods.How long will you judge unjustly And show partiality to the wicked? SelahVindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute.Rescue the weak and needy; Save them from the hand of the wicked.They do not know nor do they understand; They walk around in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

Then the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him; and the worthless men testified against him, against Naboth, before the people, saying,“ Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones.

For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.

Then the officials said to the king,“ Please have this man put to death, since he is discouraging the men of war who are left in this city and all the people, by speaking words like these to them; for this man is not seeking the well being of this people, but rather their harm.”And King Zedekiah said,“ Behold, he is in your hands; for the king can do nothing against you.”So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.

For even your brothers and the household of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously with you, Even they have called aloud after you. Do not believe them, though they say nice things to you.”

But your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with wrongdoing; Your lips have spoken deceit, Your tongue mutters wickedness.No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies; They conceive trouble and give birth to disaster.They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; The one who eats of their eggs dies, And from what is crushed, a snake breaks out.Their webs will not become clothing, Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of wrongdoing, And an act of violence is in their hands.Their feet run to evil, And they hurry to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of wrongdoing, Devastation and destruction are in their paths.They do not know the way of peace, And there is no justice in their tracks; They have made their paths crooked, Whoever walks on them does not know peace.

For those who turn justice into wormwood, And throw righteousness to the earth.”