2 Samuel 14:12

Aaron said, “Don’t let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.

Gideon said to God, “Don’t let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once. Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.”

The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.

Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.

For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’

You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground, for you were taken out of it. For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”

He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?” He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

You shall be over my house. All my people will be ruled according to your word. Only in the throne I will be greater than you.”

Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness.

Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.

though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.

You are righteous, Yahweh. Your judgments are upright.

Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”

“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not equal.’ Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not equal? Aren’t your ways unequal?

But the Lord said to him, “Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel.

Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh. Without you, no man shall lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.”

The woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord, O king, may the iniquity be on me, and on my father’s house; and may the king and his throne be guiltless.”

Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this.”

However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.

How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!

“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

“Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.

Don’t be rash with your mouth, and don’t let your heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says Yahweh.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I will see your vengeance on them; for to you I have revealed my cause.

Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to Yahweh, saying,

“Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.

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

Yahweh, within her, is righteous. He will do no wrong. Every morning he brings his justice to light. He doesn’t fail, but the unjust know no shame.

He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up,

and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Abraham answered, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes.

He said, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the twenty’s sake.”

He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”

Then Judah came near to him, and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and don’t let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh.

Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it that you have sent me?

The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.

The children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day destroyed twenty-two thousand of the Israelite men down to the ground.

They said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?”

She fell at his feet, and said, “On me, my lord, on me be the blame! Please let your servant speak in your ears. Hear the words of your servant.

Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights Yahweh’s battles. Evil will not be found in you all your days.

Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is so that Yahweh has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, they are cursed before Yahweh; for they have driven me out today that I shouldn’t cling to Yahweh’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!’

He came near to her; and the woman said, “Are you Joab?” He answered, “I am.” Then she said to him, “Hear the words of your servant.” He answered, “I’m listening.”

He said moreover, I have something to tell you.” She said, “Say on.”

He cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”

Then she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; then she picked up her son, and went out.

He was with them hidden in God’s house six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.

But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by the eunuchs. Therefore the king was very angry, and his anger burned in him.

Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and begged him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his plan that he had planned against the Jews.

‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay.

There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge.

How much less man, who is a worm, the son of man, who is a worm!”

“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.

I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.

How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.

But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed.

Yahweh is Gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful.

Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention;

He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.

There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.

They 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.

You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would like to reason the cause with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?

Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image which I have made, good; but if you don’t worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. Who is that god that will deliver you out of my hands?”

Because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. He killed whom he wanted to, and he kept alive whom he wanted to. He raised up whom he wanted to, and he put down whom he wanted to.

But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.

“So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you!’

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” He said, “Teacher, say on.”

For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son,

“Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.

“I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you today concerning all the things that I am accused by the Jews,

but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the Good News.