Turn back, let there be no injustice! Yea, turn back; my righteousness still stands!

Then you shall again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him.

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

If you see the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, do not be astonished at the matter; for He who is higher than the highest watches; so there are those higher than they.

Surely oppression makes a fool out of a wise man; and a bribe destroys the heart.

So the Egyptians made the children of Israel work with harshness.

And they made their lives bitter with hard labor; in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of labor in the field. All their labor in which they made them work was with harshness.

and he said: When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.

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

And it came to pass after many days that the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

There is no straw given to your slaves, and they say to us, Make brick! And behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.

Therefore go now and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the amount of bricks.

A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and your produce, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.

therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom Jehovah will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron upon your neck until He has destroyed you.

And the children of Israel cried out unto Jehovah; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.

So the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel; and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the sons of Ammon.

And that year they shattered and oppressed the children of Israel; for eighteen years, all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead.

And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their brothers the Jews.

There were also some who said, We have mortgaged our fields and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.

Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our fields and vineyards.

They lodge the naked without clothing, with no covering against the cold.

They seize the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge from the poor.

They press out oil within their walls, and tread winepresses, but are thirsty.

He lies in wait secretly, like a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor; he catches the poor when he draws him into his net.

He lies low and crouches, and the poor unfortunate ones have fallen by his might.

A poor man who oppresses the lowly is like a sweeping rain which leaves no food.

Like a roaring lion and a ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the lowly people.

A ruler lacking understanding is abundant in extortions; he who hates unjust gain shall prolong his days.

For the vineyard of Jehovah of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold an outcry!

But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow down so that we may pass over; and lay your back on the ground, even as the street, for those who cross over.

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; devastation and destruction are in their paths.

in transgressing and lying against Jehovah, and backsliding from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

Yea, truth fails; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. And Jehovah saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice.

And I will come near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those swearing to a lie; and against those who defraud the hired laborer of his pay, and turn away the widow, and the fatherless, and the alien; and who do not fear Me, says Jehovah of Hosts.

My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day, Where is your God?

I will say to God my Rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink a third time.

My enemies reproach me all day long, those who are mad at me swear an oath against me.

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

And this is a second thing you do: covering the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping and crying out; so that He does not regard the grain offering, nor receive it with delight from your hand.

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

I also could speak as you do, if your soul were in the place of my soul. I could heap up words against you, and shake my head at you.

Have pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends! For the hand of God has struck me!

Why do you persecute me as the Mighty God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

Reproach has broken My heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for someone to show pity, but there was no one; and for comforters, but I found none.

Look on my right hand and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has vanished from me; no one cares for my soul.

All the brothers of the poor man hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him? He pursues them with words, yet they are nowhere to be found.

She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers, she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt deceitfully with her; they have become her enemies.

Her uncleanness is in her skirts; she did not remember her end, and her downfall was extraordinary. There is no comforter for her. O Jehovah, behold my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.

But all this is happening that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.

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

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