Thematic Bible
Thematic Bible
Consolation under Affliction » Is sought in vain from the world
Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, but there was no one, and for comforters, but I found none.
So I returned and considered all the violence that is done under the sun and behold the tears of such as are oppressed, and they have no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but the oppressed had no comforter.
Beth She weeps sore in the night, and 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 are become her enemies.
Instruction » From nature
So I returned and considered all the violence that is done under the sun and behold the tears of such as are oppressed, and they have no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but the oppressed had no comforter.
I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and, behold, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered its face, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it and received chastening. read more.
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travels and thy want as an armed man.
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travels and thy want as an armed man.
And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven (this sore travail God has given to the sons of man that they be occupied in it). I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is lacking cannot be numbered. read more.
I communed with my own heart, saying, Behold, I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom than all those that have been before me in Jerusalem; and my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and knowledge and to know folly and those who are mad; I learned in the end that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow.
I communed with my own heart, saying, Behold, I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom than all those that have been before me in Jerusalem; and my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and knowledge and to know folly and those who are mad; I learned in the end that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow.
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? read more.
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Life » Of the spirit » Weariness of
My soul is cut off in my life; therefore, I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted and wished in his soul to die and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope.
And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these who are of the daughters of this land, why should I want to live?
What is my strength that I should hope? What is my end that I should prolong my life?
Therefore I hated life because every work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me; for all was vanity and vexation of spirit.
So I returned and considered all the violence that is done under the sun and behold the tears of such as are oppressed, and they have no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but the oppressed had no comforter. Therefore I praised the dead who are already dead more than the living who are yet alive.
Oppression » Examples of
The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have done violence unto the poor and needy; they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, making mortar and brick and in all manner of service in the field; all their service, in which they made them serve, was with rigor.
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped your fields (which you have kept back by fraud) cries out; and the cries of those who have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of the hosts.
Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried unto Elisha, saying, Thy slave, my husband, is dead; and thou knowest that thy slave feared the LORD; and the creditor is come to take my two sons to be his slaves.
So I returned and considered all the violence that is done under the sun and behold the tears of such as are oppressed, and they have no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but the oppressed had no comforter.
But ye have despised the poor. Do not the rich oppress you with tyranny and draw you with violence to the courts?
And the tally of the bricks which they made before, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish any of it; for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
Then there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren, the Jews.
For the vineyard of the LORD of the hosts is the house of Israel and every man of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.