Ecclesiastes 4:1

Modern English Version

Again I turned and observed all types of oppression that are done under the sun: Behold, the tears of the oppressed, and no one was there to comfort them. There was force from the hand of the oppressors, and no one was there to comfort them.

Cross References

Job 16:4

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

Job 35:9

“Because of the many oppressions they cry out; they cry out because of the arm of the mighty.

Job 6:29

Turn, I pray, let there be no injustice! Yes, turn again, my righteousness still stands!

Job 9:24

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?

Psalm 12:5

“Because the poor are plundered, because the needy sigh, now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will place him in the safety for which he yearns.”

Psalm 142:4

Look to the right and see, for there is no one who acknowledges me; there is no refuge for me; no one cares for my soul.

Psalm 142:5

I cried out to You, O  Lord; I said, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”

Psalm 42:3

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

Psalm 42:9

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

Psalm 69:20

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.

Psalm 69:21

They also gave me poison in my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Psalm 80:5

You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in great measure.

Exodus 1:16

and he said, “When you perform the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the stools, if it is a son, then you must kill him, but if it is a daughter, then she may live.”

Exodus 1:22

Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “You must cast every son that is born into the river, and you must preserve every daughter’s life.”

Proverbs 19:7

All the brothers of the poor hate him; how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with words, yet they abandon him.

Proverbs 28:3

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

Proverbs 29:2

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

Ecclesiastes 3:16

Moreover, I observed what was under the sun: In the place of justice, there was wickedness; and in the place of righteousness, there was wickedness.

Ecclesiastes 5:8

If you observe in a district the oppression of the poor and violation of justice and righteousness, do not be astounded by the matter. For the high official is watched over by an even higher official, and there are even higher officials over them.

Ecclesiastes 7:7

Surely oppression brings confusion to the wise person, and a bribe corrupts a person’s heart.

Ecclesiastes 8:9

All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man rules over others to their hurt.

Isaiah 5:7

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

Isaiah 51:23

But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to you, “Lie down that we may walk over you.” And you have laid your back as the ground and as the street for those who walk on it.

Isaiah 59:7

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.

Jeremiah 16:7

Neither will men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; nor will men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

Lamentations 1:16

For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for the comforter, who should relieve my soul, is far from me. My children are desolate for the enemy has prevailed.

Lamentations 1:17

Zion spreads out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her; the Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his adversaries; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.

Lamentations 1:2

She weeps sorely in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.

Lamentations 1:9

Her uncleanness is in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; therefore her fall is astounding; she has no comforter. “O  Lord, look upon my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!”

Amos 3:10

They do not know how to do right, says the Lord, storing up violence and destruction in their fortresses.

Amos 3:9

Proclaim to the fortresses in Ashdod, and the fortresses in the land of Egypt, and say: “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see the great disorders within her, and the oppression in her midst.”

Malachi 2:13

This is the second thing you do: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying out, because He no longer regards the offering, nor receives it with good will from your hand.

Malachi 3:18

Then you will again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.

Malachi 3:5

Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the perjurers, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who turn aside the stranger, and do not fear Me, says the Lord of Hosts.

Matthew 26:56

But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.

Deuteronomy 28:33

A nation that you do not know will consume the produce of your land and all your labors, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed all the time.

Deuteronomy 28:48

Therefore, you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and need of all things, and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

James 5:4

Behold, the wages that you kept back by fraud from the laborers who harvested your fields are crying, and the cries of those who harvested have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

Judges 4:3

The Israelites cried out to the Lord, for Sisera had nine hundred iron chariots and had forcefully oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.