Sit down now, and let there not be unrighteousness, and unite again with the just.

Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, and between him that serves God, and him that serves Him not.

And moreover I saw under the sun: [In] the place of judgment, wickedness [was] there; and in the place of righteousness, there was godliness.

If you should see the oppression of the poor, and the wresting of judgment and of justice in the land, wonder not at the matter; for [there is] a high one to watch over him that is high, and high ones over them.

For oppression makes a wise man mad, and destroys his noble heart.

And the Egyptians tyrannized over the children of Israel by force.

And they embittered their life by hard labors, in the clay and in brick-making, and all the works in the plains, according to all the works, wherein they caused them to serve with violence.

And he said, When you do the duties of midwife to the Hebrew women, and they are about to be delivered, if it be a male, kill it; but if a female, save it.

And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Whatever male [child] shall be born to the Hebrews, cast into the river; and every female, save it alive.

And in those days after a length of time, the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel groaned because of their tasks, and cried, and their cry because of their tasks went up to God.

And God heard their groanings, and God remembered His covenant [that He] made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Straw is not given to your servants, and they tell us to make bricks; and behold, your servants have been scourged; therefore you will injure your people.

Now then go and work, for straw shall not be given to you, yet you shall return the rate of bricks.

A nation which you know not shall eat the produce of your land, and all your labors; and you shall be perpetually injured and crushed.

And you shall serve your enemies, which the Lord will send forth against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in the desire of all things; and you shall wear upon your neck a yoke of iron until He has destroyed you.

And the children of Israel cried to the Lord, because he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and he mightily oppressed Israel twenty years.

And the Lord was very angry with Israel, and sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Ammon.

And they afflicted and bruised the children of Israel at that time eighteen years, all the children of Israel beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorite in Gilead.

And the cry of the people and their wives [was] great against their brothers the Jews.

And some said, [As to] our fields and vineyards and houses, let us pledge [them], and we will take grain, and eat.

And now our flesh [is] as the flesh of our brothers, our children [are] as their children. Yet behold, we are reducing our sons and our daughters to slavery, and some of our daughters are enslaved; and there is no power of our hands, for our fields and our vineyards [belong] to the nobles.

They have caused many naked to sleep without clothes, and they have taken away the covering of their body.

They have snatched the fatherless from the breast, and have afflicted the outcast.

They have unrighteously laid wait in narrow places, and have not known the righteous way.

He lies in wait in secret as a lion in his den: he lies in wait to ravish the poor, to ravish the poor when he draws him [after him]: he will bring him down in his snare.

He will bow down and fall when he has mastered the poor.

A bold man oppresses the poor by ungodly deeds. As an impetuous and profitable rain,

A hungry lion and a thirsty wolf [is he], who, being poor, rules over a poor nation.

A king in need of revenues is a great oppressor, but he that hates injustice shall live a long time.

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah [His] beloved plant; I expected [it] to bring forth judgment, and it brought forth iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry.

And I will give it into the hands of them that injured you, and them that afflicted you; who said to your soul, Bow down, that we may pass over; and you laid your body to the ground to them passing by outside.

And their feet run to wickedness, [and are] swift to shed blood; their thoughts also are thoughts of murder; destruction and misery are in their ways;

We have sinned, and dealt falsely, and revolted from our God; we have spoken unrighteous words, and have been disobedient; we have conceived and uttered from our heart unrighteous words.

And truth has been taken away, and they have turned aside [their] mind from understanding. And the Lord saw it, and it pleased Him not that there was no judgment.

And I will draw near to you in judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the witches, and against the adulteresses, and against them that swear falsely by My name, and against them that keep back the hireling's wages, and them that oppress the widow, and afflict orphans, and that wrest the judgment of the stranger, and do not fear Me, says the Lord Almighty.

My tears have been bread to me day and night, while they daily said to me, Where is your God?

I will say to God, You are my helper; why have You forgotten me? Why do I mourn, while the enemy oppresses [me]?

You will feed us with the bread of tears; and will cause us to drink tears by measure.

All the day long my enemies have reproached me; and they that praised me have sworn against me.

For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping;

And these things which I hated, you did: you covered with tears the altar of the Lord, and with weeping and groaning because of troubles: [is it] right [for Me] to have respect for your sacrifice, or to receive [anything] from your hands as welcome?

Indeed, the wages of the laborers who reaped your fields, which were kept back by you, cry out, and the cries of the reapers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

I also will speak as you do- if indeed your soul were in my [soul's] place, [ 16:5] then would I insult you with words, and I would shake my head at you!

Pity me, pity me, O my friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.

Why do you persecute me as also the Lord [does], and are not satisfied with my flesh?

My soul has waited for reproach and misery; and I waited for one to grieve with me, but there was none; and for one to comfort me, but I found none.

I looked on [my] right hand, and behold, for there was none that noticed me; refuge failed me; and there was none that cared for my soul.

Everyone who hates his poor brother shall also be far from friendship. Good understanding will draw near to them that know it, and a sensible man will find it. He that does much harm perfects mischief, and he that used provoking words shall not escape.

BETH. She weeps sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; and there is none of all her lovers to comfort her: all that were her friends have dealt deceitfully with her, they have become her enemies.

TETH. Her uncleanness is before her feet; she remembered not her last end; she has lowered her boasting [tone], there is none to comfort her. Behold, O Lord, my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.

But all this has happened so that the Scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled." Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.

At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be reckoned to them.

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fulfilled, and all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.