Open your mouth, judge in righteousness, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have purified you in the furnace of misery.

I will leave in your midst a humble and meek group of people, and they will find safety in the Lord’s presence.

You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages.

“You saw the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt, and you heard their cry at the Red Sea.

Before daybreak the murderer rises up; he kills the poor and the needy; in the night he is like a thief.

For you deliver oppressed people, but you bring down those who have a proud look.

This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard; he saved him from all his troubles.

Evil men draw their swords and prepare their bows, to bring down the oppressed and needy, and to slaughter those who are godly.

A prayer of David. Listen O Lord! Answer me! For I am oppressed and needy.

My eyes grow weak because of oppression. I call out to you, O Lord, all day long; I spread out my hands in prayer to you.

I know that the Lord defends the cause of the oppressed and vindicates the poor.

Do not exploit a poor person because he is poor and do not crush the needy in court,

lest they drink and forget what is decreed, and remove from all the poor their legal rights.

He upheld the cause of the poor and needy. So things went well for Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘That is a good example of what it means to know me.’

You pierce the heads of his warriors with a spear. They storm forward to scatter us; they shout with joy as if they were plundering the poor with no opposition.

The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

The Lord saw Israel’s intense suffering; everyone was weak and incapacitated and Israel had no deliverer.

For he did not despise or detest the suffering of the oppressed; he did not ignore him; when he cried out to him, he responded.

With all my strength I will say, “O Lord, who can compare to you? You rescue the oppressed from those who try to overpower them; the oppressed and needy from those who try to rob them.”