¹All rise! For God now comes to judge

as he convenes heaven’s courtroom.

He judges every judge and rules in the midst of the gods, saying,

²“How long will you judges refuse to listen

to the voice of true justice and continue to corrupt what is right

by judging in favor of the wrong?”

³“Defend the defenseless, the fatherless and the forgotten,

the disenfranchised and the destitute.

⁴Your duty is to deliver the poor and the powerless;

liberate them from the grasp of the wicked.

⁵But you continue in your darkness and ignorance

while the foundations of society are shaken to the core!

⁶Didn’t I commission you as judges, saying,

‘You are all like gods, since you judge on my behalf.

You are all like sons of the Most High, my representatives.’

⁷Nevertheless, in death you are nothing but mere men!

You will be laid in the ground like any prince and you will die.”

⁸All rise! For God now takes his place as judge of all the earth.

Don’t you know that everything and everyone belongs to him?

The nations will be sifted in his hands!