12. “Lord, our crimes against you are many. Our sins accuse us. We are well aware of them all.
13. We have rebelled against you, rejected you, and refused to follow you. We have oppressed others and turned away from you. Our thoughts are false; our words are lies.
14. Justice is driven away, and right cannot come near. Truth stumbles in the public square, and honesty finds no place there.
15. There is so little honesty that those who stop doing evil find themselves the victims of crime.”The Lord has seen this, and he is displeased that there is no justice.
16. He is astonished to see that there is no one to help the oppressed. So he will use his own power to rescue them and to win the victory.