Ecclesiastes 3:7

⁵Don’t trust in a neighbor. Don’t put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth!

¹³Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.

²⁸Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.

¹³Then Mordecai asked them to return this answer to Esther: “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews. ¹⁴For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

⁸Open your mouth for the mute, in the cause of all who are left desolate. ⁹Open your mouth, judge righteously, and serve justice to the poor and needy.”

²⁰for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.”

⁴Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were older than he. ⁵When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled.

⁶Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, “I am young, and you are very old. Therefore I held back, and didn’t dare show you my opinion. ⁷I said, ‘Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’ ⁸But there is a spirit in man, and the Spirit^[+] of the Almighty gives them understanding. ⁹It is not the great who are wise, nor the aged who understand justice. ¹⁰Therefore I said, ‘Listen to me; I also will show my opinion.’ ¹¹“Behold, I waited for your words, and I listened for your reasoning, while you searched out what to say. ¹²Yes, I gave you my full attention, but there was no one who convinced Job, or who answered his words, among you. ¹³Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom. God may refute him, not man;’ ¹⁴for he has not directed his words against me; neither will I answer him with your speeches. ¹⁵“They are amazed. They answer no more. They don’t have a word to say. ¹⁶Shall I wait, because they don’t speak, because they stand still, and answer no more? ¹⁷I also will answer my part, and I also will show my opinion. ¹⁸For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me. ¹⁹Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent; like new wineskins it is ready to burst. ²⁰I will speak, that I may be refreshed. I will open my lips and answer. ²¹Please don’t let me respect any man’s person, neither will I give flattering titles to any man. ²²For I don’t know how to give flattering titles, or else my Maker would soon take me away.

⁴For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for male and female slaves, I would have held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king’s loss.”

¹³Tear your heart and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.

¹¹Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter! ¹²If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not give to every man according to his work?