I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.
It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.
Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
(for from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father, and from my mother's womb I guided the widow),
They thrust the poor off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house. And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him. And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast.
“If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose. And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and they shall declare to you the decision. Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you.
then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you,
And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com.