Ecclesiastes 4:1

God's Word

Next, I turned to look at all the acts of oppression that make people suffer under the sun. Look at the tears of those who suffer! No one can comfort them. Their oppressors have ⌞all⌟ the power. No one can comfort those who suffer.

Cross References

Job 16:4

I, too, could speak like you if we could trade places. I could string words together against you and shake my head at you.

Job 35:9

The weight of oppression makes them cry out. The power of mighty people makes them call for help.

Job 6:29

Please change your mind. Don’t permit any injustice. Change your mind because I am still right about this!

Job 9:24

The earth is handed over to the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If he isn’t the one ⌞doing this⌟, who is?

Psalm 12:5

“Because oppressed people are robbed and needy people groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will provide safety for those who long for it.”

Psalm 142:4

Look to my right and see that no one notices me. Escape is impossible for me. No one cares about me.

Psalm 142:5

I call out to you, O Lord. I say, “You are my refuge, my own inheritance in this world of the living.”

Psalm 42:3

My tears are my food day and night. People ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Psalm 42:9

I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk around in mourning while the enemy oppresses me?”

Psalm 69:20

Insults have broken my heart, and I am sick. I looked for sympathy, but there was none. I looked for people to comfort me, but I found no one.

Psalm 69:21

They poisoned my food, and when I was thirsty, they gave me vinegar to drink.

Psalm 80:5

You made them eat tears as food. You often made them drink ⌞their own⌟ tears.

Exodus 1:16

“When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, look at the child when you deliver it. If it’s a boy, kill it, but if it’s a girl, let it live.”

Exodus 1:22

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw into the Nile every ⌞Hebrew⌟ boy that was born, but to let every girl live.

Proverbs 19:7

The entire family of a poor person hates him. How much more do his friends keep their distance from him! When he chases them with words, they are gone.

Proverbs 28:3

A poor person who oppresses poorer people is like a driving rain that leaves no food.

Proverbs 29:2

When righteous people increase, the people ⌞of God⌟ rejoice, but when a wicked person rules, everybody groans.

Ecclesiastes 3:16

I saw something else under the sun: There is wickedness where justice should be found. There is wickedness where righteousness should be found.

Ecclesiastes 5:8

Don’t be surprised if you see poor people being oppressed, denied justice, or denied their rights in any district. One authority is watching over another, and they both have authorities watching over them.

Ecclesiastes 7:7

Oppression can turn a wise person into a fool, and a bribe can corrupt the mind.

Ecclesiastes 8:9

I have seen all of this, and I have carefully considered all that is done under the sun whenever one person has authority to hurt others.

Isaiah 5:7

The vineyard of the Lord of Armies is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the garden of his delight. He hoped for justice but saw only slaughter, for righteousness but heard only cries of distress.

Isaiah 51:23

I will put it in the hands of those who made you suffer. They said to you, “Lie down so that we can walk over you.” So you made your back like the ground and like a street for them to cross.

Isaiah 59:7

Their feet run to do evil. They hurry to shed innocent blood. Their plans are evil. Ruin and destruction are on their highways.

Jeremiah 16:7

No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn the dead. No one will give a consoling drink to those who have lost their fathers or mothers.

Lamentations 1:16

I’m crying because of ⌞all⌟ these things. My eyes—my eyes flow with tears. No one can give me the comfort I need to keep me alive. Everyone is too far away from me. My children are devastated because my enemies have won.”

Lamentations 1:17

Zion holds out its hands. No one offers it comfort. The Lord has given this order about Jacob: His own neighbors will become his opponents. Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.

Lamentations 1:2

Jerusalem cries bitterly at night with tears running down its cheeks. Out of all those who love the city, no one offers it comfort. All of Jerusalem’s friends have betrayed it and become its enemies.

Lamentations 1:9

Jerusalem’s own filth ⌞covers⌟ its clothes. It gave no thought to its future. Its downfall was shocking. No one offers it comfort. ‘O Lord, look at my suffering, because my enemies have triumphed.’

Amos 3:10

Those who collect profits in their palaces through violent and destructive acts don’t know how to do what is right, declares the Lord.

Amos 3:9

Announce in the palaces of Ashdod and in the palaces of Egypt, “Gather together on the mountains of Samaria. See the widespread confusion and oppression in Samaria.”

Malachi 2:13

Here is another thing you do: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears. You moan and groan because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them from you.

Malachi 3:18

Then you will again see the difference between righteous people and wicked people, between the one who serves God and the one who doesn’t serve him.

Malachi 3:5

“I will come to judge you. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers, lying witnesses, and those who cheat workers out of their wages and oppress widows and orphans. I will also testify against those who deprive foreigners of their rights. None of them fear me,” says the Lord of Armies.

Matthew 26:56

All of this has happened so that what the prophets have written would come true.” Then all the disciples abandoned him and ran away.

Deuteronomy 28:33

People you never knew will eat what your land and your hard work have produced. As long as you live, you will know nothing but oppression and abuse.

Deuteronomy 28:48

So you will serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you. You will serve them even though you are already hungry, thirsty, naked, and in need of everything. The Lord will put a heavy burden of hard work on you until he destroys you.

James 5:4

The wages you refused to pay the people who harvested your fields shout ⌞to God⌟ against you. The Lord of Armies has heard the cries of those who gather the crops.

Judges 4:3

The people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help. King Jabin had 900 chariots made of iron and had cruelly oppressed Israel for 20 years.