Nehemiah 5:1

In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor and sets his heart on it; lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.

In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

“ ‘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.

Jehoahaz begged Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them.

They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.

If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry;

‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

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

My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.

You have seen it, Yahweh. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me.

Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.

Nevertheless he regarded their distress, when he heard their cry.

As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.”

Yahweh’s angel said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because Yahweh has heard your affliction.

God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

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

He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them.

The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. Yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.

“Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.’ ”

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.

The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but he is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

This is the boldness which we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.

Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.

Yahweh said, “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,

Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”

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.

Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,” and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you.

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.

You shall not lend on interest to your brother: interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest.

Then Abner called to Joab, and said, “Shall the sword devour forever? Don’t you know that it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long will it be then, before you ask the people to return from following their brothers?”

I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more. The children of wickedness will not afflict them any more, as at the first,

For Yahweh saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for all, slave and free, and there was no helper for Israel.

Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, “You exact usury, everyone of his brother.” I held a great assembly against them.

“You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea,

They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.

if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,

For he who avenges blood remembers them. He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted.

“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.”

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.

They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,

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.

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.

In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.

“Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.

“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and doesn’t give him his hire;

One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”

he who hasn’t lent to them with interest, hasn’t taken any increase from them, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man,

has lent with interest, and has taken increase from the poor; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations. He shall surely die. His blood will be on him.

Her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.

Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.

Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.

But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person.

Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,

Now she who is a widow indeed and desolate, has her hope set on God, and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.

The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be gentle toward all, able to teach, patient,

Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Reuben. For she said, “Because Yahweh has looked at my affliction; for now my husband will love me.”

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.

Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.

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

so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.

For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard.

This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

Yahweh takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his loving kindness.

So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.

therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion, and Yahweh will make their scalps bald.”

He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press in it. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord Yahweh.

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.

Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?

The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

“The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’

nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom.

For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.

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.