Proverbs 22:23

One man of you shall chase a thousand; for it is Yahweh your God who fights for you, as he spoke to you.

Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!

Therefore, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,

This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.

He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing.

But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.

that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight.

Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong is your fault. I gave my servant into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, she despised me. May Yahweh judge between me and you.”

Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. May Yahweh the Judge be judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.”

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed is Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. Yahweh has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to himself as wife.

For you have maintained my just cause. You sit on the throne judging righteously.

“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.”

Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering.

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.

But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.

For the day of Yahweh is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.

For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of the animals, which made them afraid; because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to those who dwell in them.

having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,

Then the Levitical priests arose and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.

But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

he will make your righteousness shine out like light, and your justice as the noon day sun.

You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.

Your righteousness also, God, reaches to the heavens; you have done great things. God, who is like you?

I know that Yahweh will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the needy.

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

for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.

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!

A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.

Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.

Woe is me because of my injury! My wound is serious; but I said, “Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it.”

Leave your fatherless children. I will preserve them alive. Let your widows trust in me.”

A drought is on her waters, and they will be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.

so that they will take no wood out of the field, and not cut down any out of the forests; for they will make fires with the weapons. They will plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them,” says the Lord Yahweh.

Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”

Yahweh has taken away your judgments. He has thrown out your enemy. The King of Israel, Yahweh, is among you. You will not be afraid of evil any more.

For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.

saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place.

Don’t seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.”

Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise,

So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

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

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

If anyone is to go into captivity, he will go into captivity. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints.

Now therefore, my lord, as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, since Yahweh has withheld you from blood guiltiness, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies, and those who seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

For indeed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, who has withheld me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there wouldn’t have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one who urinates on a wall.”

then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause;

That night, Yahweh’s angel went out, and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,

You will destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.

All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”

Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me.

Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.

There is no one like you among the gods, Lord, nor any deeds like your deeds.

Yahweh, you God to whom vengeance belongs, you God to whom vengeance belongs, shine out.

“Now I will arise,” says Yahweh. “Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted.

Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.

Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

Alexander, the coppersmith, did much evil to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds,

When he was cursed, he didn’t curse back. When he suffered, he didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.

A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

I will bear the indignation of Yahweh, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my case, and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light. I will see his righteousness.

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.

Those who feared Yahweh’s word among the servants of Pharaoh made their servants and their livestock flee into the houses.

May Yahweh judge between me and you, and may Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand will not be on you.

May Yahweh therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hand.”

Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.

Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.

Plead my cause, and redeem me! Revive me according to your promise.

At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed, and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betrayal, you will be betrayed.

Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more.

Their Redeemer is strong: Yahweh of Armies is his name. He will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News;

Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you, because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell in it.