Isaiah 59:14

¹⁶Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.

⁴Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.

²⁷As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich. ²⁸They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.

²¹How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice. Righteousness lodged in her, but now there are murderers.

²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!

¹¹Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take taxes from him of wheat, you have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.

⁹Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity, ¹⁰who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money; yet they lean on the LORD, and say, “Isn’t the LORD among us? No disaster will come on us.”

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?

¹Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees ²to deprive the needy of justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

⁷You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth!