12 Lord, please help me!
All the good people have gone away!
    No kind or faithful people remain.
² Everybody tells lies to one another.
When they say nice things,
    they do it to deceive their friends.
³ Lord, please shut their mouths!
When they deceive people or they boast,
    stop them doing that!
⁴ They say:
‘Nobody can tell us what to do!
    We will say what we like to get what we want!’
⁵ But the Lord says:
    ‘Now I will do something!
I know the cruel things that wicked people do to poor people.
When weak people cry with pain, I hear them.
So I will make them safe,
    as they want me to do for them.’
⁶ The Lord's promises are true.
We can trust them,
    because they are pure.
They are as pure as silver
    that people have put in a hot fire seven times.^[a]
7 Yes Lord, you will take care of the poor people.
You will always keep each one of them safe
    from all those evil people.
⁸ But if people praise evil things,
    then wicked people will boast more and more.