They pronounce the guilty innocent for a payoff, they ignore the just cause of the innocent. ¹ 

like heat ¹  in a dry land, you humble the boasting foreigners. ²  Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, ³  so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. ⁴ 

Learn to do what is right! Promote justice! Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! ¹  Take up the cause of the orphan! Defend the rights of the widow! ² 

For just as the ground produces its crops and a garden yields its produce, so the sovereign Lord will cause deliverance ¹  to grow, and give his people reason to praise him in the sight of all the nations. ² 

Your officials are rebels, ¹  they associate with ²  thieves. All of them love bribery, and look for ³  payoffs. ⁴  They do not take up the cause of the orphan, ⁵  or defend the rights of the widow. ⁶ 

But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. ¹ 

Then you will find joy in your relationship to the Lord, ¹  and I will give you great prosperity, ²  and cause crops to grow on the land I gave to your ancestor Jacob.” ³  Know for certain that the Lord has spoken. ⁴ 

All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. ¹ 

For I will pour water on the parched ground ¹  and cause streams to flow ²  on the dry land. I will pour my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your children.

Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you; indeed, ¹  every morning it will sweep by, it will come through during the day and the night.” ²  When this announcement is understood, it will cause nothing but terror.

Indeed, they are barely planted; yes, they are barely sown; yes, they barely take root in the earth, and then he blows on them, causing them to dry up, and the wind carries them away like straw.

(64:1) As when fire ignites dry wood, or fire makes water boil, let your adversaries know who you are, ¹  and may the nations shake at your presence!

“Do I bring a baby to the birth opening and then not deliver it?” asks the Lord. “Or do I bring a baby to the point of delivery and then hold it back?” asks your God. ¹ 

For the Lord has planned a day of revenge, ¹  a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion. ² 

For this is what the sovereign Lord says: “In the beginning my people went to live temporarily in Egypt; Assyria oppressed them for no good reason.

The leaders of this nation were misleading people, and the people being led were destroyed. ¹ 

“Present your argument,” says the Lord. “Produce your evidence,” ¹  says Jacob’s king. ² 

The Lord will give a mighty shout ¹  and intervene in power, ²  with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, ³  with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.

I have received a distressing message: ¹  “The deceiver deceives, the destroyer destroys. Attack, you Elamites! Lay siege, you Medes! I will put an end to all the groaning!” ² 

This is what your sovereign master, ¹  the Lord your God, says: “Look, I have removed from your hand the cup of intoxicating wine, ²  the goblet full of my anger. ³  You will no longer have to drink it.