TSK · Ecclesiastes 5:8

God sent an angel to ravage Jerusalem. As he was doing so, the LORD watched and relented from his judgment. He told the angel who was destroying,“That’s enough! Stop now!” Now the LORD’s angel was standing near the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

For he has oppressed the poor and abandoned them; he has seized a house which he did not build.

For what hope does the godless have when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

“Because of the violence done to the oppressed, because of the painful cries of the needy, I will spring into action,” says the LORD.“I will provide the safety they so desperately desire.”

The godly will rejoice when they see vengeance carried out; they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

Then they will know that you alone are the LORD, the Most High over all the earth.

A slanderer will not endure on the earth; calamity will hunt down a violent man and strike him down.

The Problem of Injustice and Oppression I saw something else on earth: In the place of justice, there was wickedness, and in the place of fairness, there was wickedness.

Why do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?” The Sovereign LORD of Heaven’s Armies has spoken.

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria Beware, Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, a cudgel with which I angrily punish.

The LORD’s angel went out and killed 185,000 troops in the Assyrian camp. When they got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses!

For this is what the high and exalted one says, the one who rules forever, whose name is holy:“I dwell in an exalted and holy place, but also with the discouraged and humiliated, in order to cheer up the humiliated and to encourage the discouraged.

But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression.

Certainly I am aware of your many rebellious acts and your numerous sins. You torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to the needy at the city gate.

Can horses run on rocky cliffs? Can one plow the sea with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant, and the fruit of righteous actions into a bitter plant.

Land Robbers Will Lose Their Land Beware wicked schemers, those who devise calamity as they lie in bed. As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, because they have the power to do so.

God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders I said,“Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel! You ought to know what is just,

“I will not overlook, O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much.

Habakkuk Voices Some Concerns LORD, you have been active from ancient times; my sovereign God, you are immortal. LORD, you have made them your instrument of judgment. Protector, you have appointed them as your instrument of punishment.

And,’ says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies,‘though such a thing may seem to be difficult in the opinion of the small community of those days, will it also appear difficult to me?’ asks the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers.

The angel replied,“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God.

“For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed,

Immediately an angel of the Lord struck Herod down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.

For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment.

Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you.

I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of those who testified to Jesus. I was greatly astounded when I saw her.