'Against' in the Bible

Samaria will be found guilty [and become desolate],Because she rebelled against her God;They will fall by the sword,Their infants will be dashed in pieces,And their pregnant women will be ripped open.

Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord,Weep between the porch and the altar,And let them say, “Have compassion and spare Your people, O Lord,And do not make Your inheritance (Israel) an object of ridicule,Or a [humiliating] byword among the [Gentile] nations.Why should they say among the peoples,‘Where is their God?’”

Egypt will become a waste,And Edom will become a desolate wilderness,Because of their violence against the children of Judah,In whose land they have shed innocent blood.

“And I will cut off and destroy the inhabitants from Ashdod,And the ruler who holds the scepter, from Ashkelon;And I will unleash My power and turn My hand [in judgment] against Ekron,And the rest of the Philistines [in Gath and the towns dependent on these four Philistine cities] shall die,”Says the Lord God.

Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt:

It is as if a man runs from a lion [escaping one danger]And a bear meets him [so he dies anyway],Or goes home, and leans with his hand against the wallAnd a snake bites him.

“For behold, I am going to stir up a nation against you,O house of Israel,” says the Lord, the God of hosts,“And they will afflict and torment you [to the entire limits of Israel] from the entrance of Hamath [in the north]To the brook of the Arabah [in the south].”

“And the [idolatrous] high places of Isaac (Israel) will be devastated and deserted,And the sanctuaries of Israel will be in ruins.Then I shall rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword [and destroy the monarchy].”

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel [site of the golden calf shrine], sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words.

Now therefore, listen to the word of the Lord: You say, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.’

The vision of Obadiah.Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom—We have heard a report from the Lord,And an ambassador has been sent among the nations, saying,“Arise, and let us rise up against Edom for battle [with the Lord as commander]!”

“All the men allied with youShall send you on your way to the border;The men who were at peace with youShall deceive you and overpower you;Those who eat your bread [those you trust]Shall set a hostile ambush for you.(There is no understanding of it.)

“Because of the violence you did against your brother Jacob,Shame shall cover you [completely],And you shall be cut off forever.

“Go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim [judgment] against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

Nevertheless, the men rowed hard [breaking through the waves] to return to land, but they could not, because the sea became even more violent [surging higher] against them.

Who knows, God may turn [in compassion] and relent and withdraw His burning anger (judgment) so that we will not perish.”

He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still in my country? That is why I ran to Tarshish, because I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and great in lovingkindness, and [when sinners turn to You] You revoke the [sentence of] disaster [against them].

Hear, O peoples, all of you;Listen closely, O earth and all that is in it,And let the Lord God be witness [giving a testimony of the judgment] against you,The Lord from His holy temple [in the heavens].

Therefore, thus says the Lord,“Behold, I am planning against this family a disaster (exile)[Like a noose] from which you cannot remove your necks;Nor will you be able to walk haughtily and erect,For it will be an evil time [of subjugation to the invaders].

“On that day they shall take up a [taunting, deriding] parable against youAnd wail with a doleful and bitter song of mourning and say,‘We are completely destroyed!God exchanges the inheritance of my people;How He removes it from me!He divides our fields to the rebellious [our captors].’

Thus says the Lord concerning the [false] prophets who lead my people astray;When they have something good to bite with their teeth,They call out, “Peace,”But against the one who gives them nothing to eat,They declare a holy war.

And He will judge between many peoplesAnd render decisions for strong and distant nations.Then they shall hammer their swords into plowsharesAnd their spears into pruning hooks [so that the implements of war may become the tools of agriculture];Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,Nor shall they ever again train for war.

“Now many [conquering] nations are assembled against you,Who say, ‘Let her be profaned [through Gentile presence and the temple’s destruction],And let our eyes gaze on and gloat over Zion.’

“Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops;A state of siege has been placed against us.They shall strike the ruler of Israel on the cheek with a rod (scepter).

This One [the Messiah] shall be our peace.When the Assyrian invades our landAnd tramples on our citadels and in our palaces,Then shall we raise against himSeven shepherds and eight princes [an overpowering force] among men.

“O My people, what have I done to you [since you have turned away from Me]?And how have I wearied you? Answer Me.

For the son dishonors the father and treats him contemptuously,The daughter rises up [in hostility] against her mother,The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—A man’s enemies are the men (members) of his own household.

Do not rejoice over me [amid my tragedies], O my enemy!Though I fall, I will rise;Though I sit in the darkness [of distress], the Lord is a light for me.

I will bear the indignation and wrath of the LordBecause I have sinned against Him,Until He pleads my case and executes judgment for me.He will bring me out to the light,And I will behold His [amazing] righteousness and His remarkable deliverance.

It shall be a day for building your walls,On that day the boundary [of Israel] shall be [greatly] extended.

Whatever [plot] you [Assyrians] devise against the Lord,He will make a complete end of it;Affliction [of God’s people by the hand of Assyria] will not occur twice.

From you [O Nineveh],One has gone forth who plotted evil against the Lord,A malevolent counselor [the king of Assyria].

Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news [telling of Assyria’s destruction],Who announces peace and prosperity!Celebrate your feasts, O Judah;Perform your vows.For the wicked one [the king of Assyria] will never again pass through you;He is completely cut off.

“Behold, I am against you [Nineveh],” declares the Lord of hosts, “and I will burn your chariots in the smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the land, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

“Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts,“And I will lift up your skirts over your face,And I will let the nations look at your nakedness [O Nineveh]And the kingdoms at your disgrace.

Why do You make men like the fish of the sea,Like reptiles and creeping things that have no ruler [and are helpless against their enemies]?

I will stand at my guard postAnd station myself on the tower;And I will keep watch to see what He will say to me,And what answer I will give [as His spokesman] when I am reproved.

“Will all these [victims of his greed] not take up a taunting song against him,And in mocking derision against himSay, ‘Woe (judgment is coming) to him who increases that which is not his—How long [will he possess it]?And [woe to him who] makes himself wealthy with loans.’

“You have devised a shameful thing for your houseBy cutting off and putting an end to many peoples;So you are sinning against your own life and forfeiting it.

“For the stone will cry out from the wall [to accuse you—built in sin!]And the rafter will answer it out of the woodwork.

Did the Lord rage against the rivers,Or was Your anger against the rivers,Or was Your wrath against the [Red] Sea,That You rode on Your horses,On Your chariots of salvation?

I heard and my whole inner self trembled;My lips quivered at the sound.Decay and rottenness enter my bones,And I tremble in my place.Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress,For the people to arise who will invade and attack us.

A day of trumpet and the battle cry [of invaders]Against the fortified citiesAnd against the high corner towers (battlements).

I will bring distress on menSo that they will walk like the blind [unable to find a way of escape],Because they have sinned against the Lord;Their blood will be poured out like dust [and trampled underfoot],And their flesh like dung.

Woe (judgment is coming) to the inhabitants of the seacoast,The nation of the Cherethites [in Philistia]!The word of the Lord is against you,O Canaan, land of the Philistines;I will destroy youSo that no inhabitant will be left.

“I have heard the taunting of MoabAnd the revilings of the sons of Ammon,With which they have taunted My peopleAnd become arrogant against their territory [by violating Israel’s boundary and trying to seize its land].

This they shall have in return for their pride, because they have taunted and become arrogant against the people of the Lord of hosts.

And the Lord will stretch out His hand against the northAnd destroy Assyria,And He will make Nineveh a desolation [a wasteland],Parched as the desert.

“On that day you [Israel] will feel no shameBecause of all your actsBy which you have rebelled and sinned against Me;Then I will remove from among youYour rejoicing ones who delight in their pride;And you will never again behave arrogantlyOn My holy mountain [Mount Zion].

The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;He has cleared away your enemies.The King of Israel, even the Lord [Himself], is in your midst;You will no longer fear disaster.

Then the Angel of the Lord said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will You withhold mercy and compassion from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which You have had indignation and anger these seventy years [of the Babylonian captivity]?”

I asked, “What are these [horns and craftsmen] coming to do?” And he said, “These are the horns (powers) that have scattered Judah so that no man raised up his head [because of the suffering inflicted by the Gentile nations]. But these craftsmen have come to terrify them and make them panic, and throw down the horns of the nations who have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah in order to scatter it.”

and do not oppress or exploit the widow or the fatherless, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise or even imagine evil in your hearts against one another.’

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely mine], and I am jealous for her with great wrath [against her enemies].’

For before those days there were no wages for man or animal; nor was there any peace or success for him who went out or came in because of his enemies, for I set all men against one another.

And let none of you devise or even imagine evil in your heart against another, and do not love lying or half-truths; for all these things I hate,’ declares the Lord.”

The oracle (a burdensome message) of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach [in Syria], with Damascus as its resting place (for the eyes of men, especially of all the tribes of Israel, are toward the Lord),

For I will bend Judah as My bow,I will fit the bow with Ephraim [as My arrow].And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece,And will make you [Israel] like the sword of a warrior.

“My anger is kindled against the shepherds [who are not true shepherds],And I shall punish the male goats (leaders);For the Lord of hosts has visited His flock, the house of Judah (the Southern Kingdom),And will make them like His beautiful and majestic horse in the battle.

“Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling (staggering) to all the surrounding peoples; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah.

And in that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will come and be gathered against it.

In that day,” declares the Lord, “I will strike every horse with panic and his rider with madness; but I will open My eyes and watch over the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the [opposing] nations with blindness.

And in that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,And against the Man, My Associate,”Declares the Lord of hosts.“Strike the Shepherd so that the sheep [of the flock] may be scattered;And I will turn My hand and stretch it out against the little ones [of the flock].

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured and the houses plundered and the women ravished; and half of the city will be exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.

Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.

Now this will be the plague with which the Lord shall strike all the peoples that have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth.

In that day a great panic and dismay from the Lord will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other.

Then everyone who is left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles).

Though [impoverished] Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins.” Thus says the Lord of hosts, “They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the Wicked Territory, the people against whom the Lord is indignant forever.”

Do we not all have one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers [with God]?

But you say, “Why [does He reject it]?” Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your marriage companion and the wife of your covenant [made by your vows].

“Then I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, and against those who oppress the laborer in his wages and widows and the fatherless, and against those who turn away the alien [from his right], and those who do not fear Me [with awe-filled reverence],” says the Lord of hosts.

“Your words have been harsh against Me,” says the Lord. “But you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the [divine] wrath and judgment to come?

And he said [mockingly] to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,‘He will command His angels concerning You [to serve, care for, protect and watch over You]’;and‘They will lift you up on their hands,So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

“Blessed [morally courageous and spiritually alive with life-joy in God’s goodness] are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil things against you because of [your association with] Me.

But I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice against him shall be guilty before the court; and whoever speaks [contemptuously and insultingly] to his brother, ‘Raca (You empty-headed idiot)!’ shall be guilty before the supreme court (Sanhedrin); and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of the fiery hell.

So if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and while there you remember that your brother has something [such as a grievance or legitimate complaint] against you,

‘And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors [letting go of both the wrong and the resentment].

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money, possessions, fame, status, or whatever is valued more than the Lord].

And the rain fell, and the floods and torrents came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

And the rain fell, and the floods and torrents came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great and complete was its fall.”

Beware of men [whose nature is to act in opposition to God], for they will hand you over to the courts and flog you in their synagogues;

“Brother will betray brother to death, and the father his child; and children will rise up and rebel against their parents and cause them to be put death.

But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, discussing how they could destroy Him.

Knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom that is divided against itself is being laid waste; and no city or house divided against itself will [continue to] stand.

If Satan casts out Satan [that is, his demons], he has become divided against himself and disunited; how then will his kingdom stand?

He who is not with Me [once and for all on My side] is against Me; and he who does not [unequivocally] gather with Me scatters.

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy [every evil, abusive, injurious speaking, or indignity against sacred things] will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the [Holy] Spirit will not be forgiven.

Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit [by attributing the miracles done by Me to Satan] will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

But the boat [by this time] was already a long distance from land, tossed and battered by the waves; for the wind was against them.

Jesus said to them, “Watch out and be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades (death) will not overpower it [by preventing the resurrection of the Christ].

Then Peter came to Him and asked, “Lord, how many times will my brother sin against me and I forgive him and let it go? Up to seven times?”

So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

At that moment Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber? Day after day I used to sit in the porches and courts of the temple teaching, and you did not arrest Me.

Now the chief priests and the whole Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court) tried to get false witnesses to testify against Jesus, so that they might [have a reason to] put Him to death.

The high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Have You no answer to give? What is it that these men are testifying against You?”