Ecclesiastes 4:1

You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.

I am in pain and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long.

Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.

“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.

Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

Yahweh was with Judah, and drove out the inhabitants of the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

It yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. Also they have power over our bodies and over our livestock, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

“I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!

I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.

All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.

I have also become a reproach to them. When they see me, they shake their head.

Don’t exploit the poor, because he is poor; and don’t crush the needy in court;

to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers;

You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’ so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the results.

Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, “Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners will not drink your new wine, for which you have labored,

I looked, and there was no one to help; and I wondered that there was no one to uphold. Therefore my own arm brought salvation to me. My own wrath upheld me.

You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with makeup, you make yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers despise you. They seek your life.

For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him. I have also given him the animals of the field.” ’ ”

All your lovers have forgotten you. They don’t seek you. For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased.

“but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned: for they made the pleasant land desolate.”

Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

“ ‘You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. “ ‘The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.

When they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who went with him, “Come near. Put your feet on the necks of these kings.” They came near, and put their feet on their necks.

Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.

Consider my affliction and my travail. Forgive all my sins.

For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

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

You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.

You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.

For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,

for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood.

arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

The rich man’s wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

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

Wealth adds many friends, but the poor is separated from his friend.

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.

They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds. They will eat up your vines and your fig trees. They will beat down your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword.

Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

Zion spreads out her hands. There is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?”

Don’t trust in a neighbor. Don’t put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth!

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and it will also be on Judah in the siege against Jerusalem.

Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of me tonight, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”

Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

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.

Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul.

When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior to the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.

David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand.”

But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man among you.

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

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.

Their enemies also oppressed them. They were brought into subjection under their hand.

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.

Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun.

I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.

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.

For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds,” says Yahweh; “because they have called you an outcast, saying, ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.’ ”

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.”

and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”

The officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble when it was said, “You shall not diminish anything from your daily quota of bricks!”

A nation which you don’t know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always,

therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and he mightily oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years.

Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be merry. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

The two men, the wicked fellows, came in and sat before him. The wicked fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king!” Then they carried him out of the city and stoned him to death with stones.

Please return. Let there be no injustice. Yes, return again. My cause is righteous.

I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,

For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up.

“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.

“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.”

My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.

You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.

Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.

All the relatives of the poor shun him: how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.

A needy man who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain which leaves no crops.

A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment. One who hates ill-gotten gain will have long days.

Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding.

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

These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you?

I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”

Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.

“For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.”

Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!”

Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.

This again you do: you cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand.

I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.

Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.

But all this has happened that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.