Ecclesiastes 5:8
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
הערת לימוד
Study Note
The observation 'if thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they' offers a remarkably pragmatic political theology: bureaucratic injustice is explained by the hierarchical structure of government itself (each level exploiting those below), but above the entire pyramid is God. The phrase 'marvel not' (al-titmah) counsels against naïve shock at institutional corruption — Qohelet has observed enough human systems to know that structural injustice is predictable. The consolation is theological rather than political: divine surveillance of the entire hierarchy provides the only ultimate accountability that human systems cannot. The verse has been important in Christian political theology's analysis of corruption and in discussions of whether government can be reformed.
תרגומים נוספים
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a province, marvel not at the matter: for one higher than the high regardeth; and there are higher than they.
If oppression of the poor, and violent taking away of judgment and righteousness thou seest in a province, do not marvel at the matter, for a higher than the high is observing, and high ones <FI>are<Fi> over them.
If you see the poor under a cruel yoke, and law and right being violently overturned in a country, be not surprised, because one authority is keeping watch on another and there are higher than they.
הפניות צולבות
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And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and he …
And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven, …
Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded …
This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.
For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?
Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.
Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to …
To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.