TSK · Ecclesiastes 4:1

When ye do the office of a mydwyfe to the women of the Hebrues, and see in the birth tyme that it is a boy, ye shall kyl it: but if it be a daughter, it shal liue.

And in processe of tyme the kyng of Egypt dyed, and the chyldren of Israel syghed by the reason of bondage, and cryed.

Go therfore nowe, & worke, and there shall no strawe be geuen you, & yet shall ye deliuer the whole tale of bricke.

Therfore shalt thou serue thyne enemie whiche the Lorde shall sende vpon thee, in hunger, and thirst, in nakednes, and in neede of all thyng: and he shall put a yoke of iron vpon thy necke, vntyll he haue brought thee to naught.

And the Lord was wroth with Israel, and he solde them into the handes of the Philistines, and into the handes of the children of Ammon.

Turne I pray you, be indifferent iudges: turne agayne, and ye shall see myne vngiltinesse,

I coulde speake as ye do also: but would God that your soule were in my soules steade, then could I frame wordes for you, and shake my head at you:

They cause the naked to lodge without garment, and without couering in the colde.

They which are oppressed crye out vpon the multitude, yea they crye out for the power of the mightie:

For the calamities of the oppressed, for the deepe sighyng of the poore, I wyll nowe vp sayeth God: and I wyll put in safetie, hym whom the wicked hath snared.

I wyll say vnto the Lorde of my strength: why hast thou forgotten me, why go I thus heauyly through the oppression of myne enemie?

They gaue me for meate, gall to eate: and when I was thirstie, they gaue me vineger to drynke.

Myne enemies reuile me all the day long: and they that are in a rage against me, make their oth by me.

I cryed vnto thee O God, and sayde: thou art my hope and my portion in the lande of the lyuyng.

One poore man oppressing another by violence, is like a raging rayne that destroyeth the fruite.

When the ryghteous are in aucthoritie the people do reioyce: but when the wicked beare rule, the people mourne.

If thou seest the poore to be oppressed, and wrongfully dealt withall, so that equitie and right of the lawe is wrested in the lande, maruayle not thou at such a thyng: for he that is higher then the hyghest regardeth, and there be hygher then they.

As for the vineyarde of the Lorde of hoastes, it is the house of Israel: and the man of Iuda, the plant of his pleasure: Of these he loked for equitie, but see there is oppression for ryghteousnesse, and lo it is a crying.

Their feete runne to euyll, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their counsels are wicked counsels, harme and destruction are in their wayes.

She weepeth sore in the nyght, so that the teares runne downe her cheekes: for among all her louers there is none that geueth her any comfort, yea her next friendes transgresse agaynst her, and are become her enemies.

Therfore do I weepe, and mine eyes gushe out of water: for the comfort that shoulde quicken me is farre fro me, my children are driuen away: for why? the enemie hath gotten the vpper hande.

Proclame in the palaces at Asdod, and in the palaces in the lande of Egypt, and say: Assemble your selues vpon the mountaynes of Samaria, and beholde the great tumultes in the mids thereof, and the oppressed in the mids therof:

And this againe haue ye done, in couering the aulter of the Lorde with teares, with weeping and mourning, and therfore there is no more respect to the offring, neither acceptable receauing of it at your handes.

Then shall ye returne, and discerne betweene the iust and the wicked, betweene him that serueth God, and him that serueth him not.

At my first aunsweryng, no man assisted me, but all forsoke me, I pray God yt it may not be layde to their charges: