Proverbs 28:3

My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.

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

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.

I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.

I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

He gives snow like wool, and scatters frost like ashes.

Delicate living is not appropriate for a fool, much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

“ ‘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.

You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am Yahweh your God.

They will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten.

For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,

Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, or have you seen the treasures of the hail,

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

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.

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

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.

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,

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

If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

“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.”

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

He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.

As one who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives honor to a fool.

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.

I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the earth.

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.

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.”

Servants rule over us. There is no one to deliver us out of their hand.

I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men. I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.”

In the land it shall be to him for a possession in Israel. My princes shall no more oppress my people; but they shall give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.”

You will sow, but won’t reap. You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil; and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.

He also said to the one who had invited him, “When you make a dinner or a supper, don’t call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you back.

For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like those of lions.

The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon—as you go toward Gerar—to Gaza—as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim—to Lasha.

Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.

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!”

Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. They plundered the Egyptians.

“ ‘If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates.

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.

They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza. They left no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep, ox, or donkey.

David was told, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors.”

He must restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!”

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.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the wide place in front of God’s house, trembling because of this matter, and because of the great rain.

But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand outside. This is not a work of one day or two, for we have greatly transgressed in this matter.

When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, because a man had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

His children will seek the favor of the poor. His hands will give back his wealth.

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

The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath.

For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain.

Whether it is for correction, or for his land, or for loving kindness, that he causes it to come.

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

lightning and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling his word;

If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lay in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.

Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.

Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.

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

A stingy man hurries after riches, and doesn’t know that poverty waits for him.

A servant can’t be corrected by words. Though he understands, yet he will not respond.

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.

For a servant when he is king, a fool when he is filled with food,

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.

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.

Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”

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?

“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

“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.”

Tell those who plaster it with whitewash that it will fall. There will be an overflowing shower; and you, great hailstones, will fall. A stormy wind will tear it.

“ ‘Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “I will even tear it with a stormy wind in my wrath. There will be an overflowing shower in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it.

and has not wronged any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken nothing by robbery, has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment;

He knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities. The land was desolate, with its fullness, because of the noise of his roaring.

They put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon. They brought him into strongholds, so that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel.

For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.

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!”

It is he who builds his rooms in the heavens, and has founded his vault on the earth; he who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth; Yahweh is his name.

“If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, what disaster awaits you—wouldn’t they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn’t they leave some gleaning grapes?

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.

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.

Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”

No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers.

that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.

Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.