A lazy man does not roast his prey,
But the precious possession of a man is diligence.

There is one who pretends to be rich, but has nothing;
Another pretends to be poor, but has great wealth.

The ransom of a man’s life is his wealth,
But the poor hears no rebuke.

Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor,
But it is swept away by injustice.

The poor is hated even by his neighbor,
But those who love the rich are many.

He who despises his neighbor sins,
But happy is he who is gracious to the poor.

He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker,
But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.

Evil plans are an abomination to the Lord,
But pleasant words are pure.

He who mocks the poor taunts his Maker;
He who rejoices at calamity will not go unpunished.

Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs,
Rather than a fool in his folly.

A foolish son is a grief to his father
And bitterness to her who bore him.

The spirit of a man can endure his sickness,
But as for a broken spirit who can bear it?

Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.

The poor man utters supplications,
But the rich man answers roughly.

Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity
Than he who is perverse in speech and is a fool.

Wealth adds many friends,
But a poor man is separated from his friend.

All the brothers of a poor man hate him;
How much more do his friends abandon him!
He pursues them with words, but they are gone.

One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord,
And He will repay him for his good deed.

A man of great anger will bear the penalty,
For if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again.

What is desirable in a man is his kindness,
And it is better to be a poor man than a liar.

Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart,
I am pure from my sin”?

It is by his deeds that a lad distinguishes himself
If his conduct is pure and right.

Do not love sleep, or you will become poor;
Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food.

“Bad, bad,” says the buyer,
But when he goes his way, then he boasts.

The way of a guilty man is crooked,
But as for the pure, his conduct is upright.

He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor
Will also cry himself and not be answered.

He who loves pleasure will become a poor man;
He who loves wine and oil will not become rich.

The rich and the poor have a common bond,
The Lord is the maker of them all.

The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.

He who is generous will be blessed,
For he gives some of his food to the poor.

He who oppresses the poor to make more for himself
Or who gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.

Do not rob the poor because he is poor,
Or crush the afflicted at the gate;

A wise man is strong,
And a man of knowledge increases power.

A poor man who oppresses the lowly
Is like a driving rain which leaves no food.

Better is the poor who walks in his integrity
Than he who is crooked though he be rich.

He who increases his wealth by interest and usury
Gathers it for him who is gracious to the poor.

The rich man is wise in his own eyes,
But the poor who has understanding sees through him.

Like a roaring lion and a rushing bear
Is a wicked ruler over a poor people.

He who gives to the poor will never want,
But he who shuts his eyes will have many curses.

The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor,
The wicked does not understand such concern.

The poor man and the oppressor have this in common:
The Lord gives light to the eyes of both.

If a king judges the poor with truth,
His throne will be established forever.

There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes,
Yet is not washed from his filthiness.

Under three things the earth quakes,
And under four, it cannot bear up:

She extends her hand to the poor,
And she stretches out her hands to the needy.

Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them.

A poor yet wise lad is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive instruction.

For he has come out of prison to become king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom.

If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them.

For what advantage does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage does the poor man have, knowing how to walk before the living?

But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words are not heeded.

If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies.

“Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes
Which have come up from their washing,
All of which bear twins,
And not one among them has lost her young.

“His head is like gold, pure gold;
His locks are like clusters of dates
And black as a raven.

“His legs are pillars of alabaster
Set on pedestals of pure gold;
His appearance is like Lebanon
Choice as the cedars.

“Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
Which have come up from their washing,
All of which bear twins,
And not one among them has lost her young.

But my dove, my perfect one, is unique:
She is her mother’s only daughter;
She is the pure child of the one who bore her.
The maidens saw her and called her blessed,
The queens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying,

‘Who is this that grows like the dawn,
As beautiful as the full moon,
As pure as the sun,
As awesome as an army with banners?’

The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people,
“It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
The plunder of the poor is in your houses.

“What do you mean by crushing My people
And grinding the face of the poor?”
Declares the Lord God of hosts.

Therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs,
And the Lord will make their foreheads bare.”

Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;
It growls as it seizes the prey
And carries it off with no one to deliver it.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

Now in that day a man may keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep;

Then the Lord said to me, “Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.

For thus the Lord spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

So as to deprive the needy of justice
And rob the poor of My people of their rights,
So that widows may be their spoil
And that they may plunder the orphans.

For he has said,
“By the power of my hand and by my wisdom I did this,
For I have understanding;
And I removed the boundaries of the peoples
And plundered their treasures,
And like a mighty man I brought down their inhabitants,

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

Lift up a standard on the bare hill,
Raise your voice to them,
Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of the nobles.

I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold
And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab,
Its wail goes as far as Eglaim and its wailing even to Beer-elim.

So it will come about when Moab presents himself,
When he wearies himself upon his high place
And comes to his sanctuary to pray,
That he will not prevail.

They will be left together for mountain birds of prey,
And for the beasts of the earth;
And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.

And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.

For Topheth has long been ready,
Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.
He has made it deep and large,
A pyre of fire with plenty of wood;
The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.

For thus says the Lord to me,
“As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey,
Against which a band of shepherds is called out,
And he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise,
So will the Lord of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”

Your tackle hangs slack;
It cannot hold the base of its mast firmly,
Nor spread out the sail.
Then the prey of an abundant spoil will be divided;
The lame will take the plunder.

The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the span,
And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?

Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing.

He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power.

“I will open rivers on the bare heights
And springs in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water
And the dry land fountains of water.

But this is a people plundered and despoiled;
All of them are trapped in caves,
Or are hidden away in prisons;
They have become a prey with none to deliver them,
And a spoil, with none to say, “Give them back!”

‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land
And streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring
And My blessing on your descendants;

“Drip down, O heavens, from above,
And let the clouds pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit,
And righteousness spring up with it.
I, the Lord, have created it.

“Gather yourselves and come;
Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations;
They have no knowledge,
Who carry about their wooden idol
And pray to a god who cannot save.

Even to your old age I will be the same,
And even to your graying years I will bear you!
I have done it, and I will carry you;
And I will bear you and I will deliver you.

Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man of My purpose from a far country.
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
I have planned it, surely I will do it.

“But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day:
Loss of children and widowhood.
They will come on you in full measure
In spite of your many sorceries,
In spite of the great power of your spells.

“Behold, they have become like stubble,
Fire burns them;
They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame;
There will be no coal to warm by
Nor a fire to sit before!

Saying to those who are bound, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
Along the roads they will feed,
And their pasture will be on all bare heights.

“Can the prey be taken from the mighty man,
Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”

Surely, thus says the Lord,
“Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away,
And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued;
For I will contend with the one who contends with you,
And I will save your sons.

“Why was there no man when I came?
When I called, why was there none to answer?
Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink for lack of water
And die of thirst.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.

As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.