Ecclesiastes 3:16

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”

who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

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.

Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!

“Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?”

Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on Yahweh?

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

that whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up.

Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail,

What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.

But as for you and your servants, I know that you don’t yet fear Yahweh God.”

Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness.

The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars.

They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of Yahweh.

Don’t envy the man of violence. Choose none of his ways.

The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.

A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, to pervert the ways of justice.

If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?

The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness—and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.

If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one, and there are officials over them.

For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

All this I have seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.

Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.

For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.

But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”

Then they came near, and spoke before the king concerning the king’s decree: “Haven’t you signed a decree that every man who makes a petition to any god or man within thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” The king answered, “This thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which doesn’t alter.”

They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won’t exalt them.

Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.

Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;

Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.

But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment. Whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna.

This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going.

When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

However God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”

But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge;

Now therefore let the fear of Yahweh be on you. Take heed and do it; for there is no iniquity with Yahweh our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes.”

“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.

he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.

Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?

For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper.

God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods.

There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.

Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun.

Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun.

I have also seen wisdom under the sun in this way, and it seemed great to me.

Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;

Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.

Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will possess them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.

Yahweh says, “Record this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no more will a man of his offspring prosper, sitting on David’s throne, and ruling in Judah.”

She weeps bitterly in the night. Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies.

Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.”

Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose.

The army was given over to it together with the continual burnt offering through disobedience. It cast down truth to the ground, and it did its pleasure and prospered.

They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name;

For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.

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

You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

But Saul ravaged the assembly, entering into every house and dragged both men and women off to prison.

But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and threw them out of their borders.

You have condemned and you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you.

He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness even until now.

No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth.

Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you, which brings about mischief by statute?

So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

All this I have seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing.

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, the sort of error which proceeds from the ruler.

Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see Yahweh’s majesty.

Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter.

You, O king, have made a decree, that every man that hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image;

They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together.

Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.

Now the chief priests, the elders, and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus, that they might put him to death;

Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to judge me according to the law, and command me to be struck contrary to the law?”

But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?