Psalm 107:39
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
39 When they are diminished and brought low
through oppression, trouble, and sorrow,(A)
2 Kings 10:32
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Death of Jehu
32 In those days the Lord began to trim off parts of Israel. Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel:(A)
Read full chapter
Exodus 2:23-24
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
23 After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Their cry for help rose up to God from their slavery.(A) 24 God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.(B)
Read full chapter
Jeremiah 51:33-34
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time when it is trodden;
yet a little while
and the time of her harvest will come.(A)
34 “King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has devoured me;
he has crushed me;
he has made me an empty vessel;
he has swallowed me like a monster;
he has filled his belly with my delicacies;
he has spewed me out.(B)
Psalm 30:6-7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O Lord,
you had established me as a strong mountain;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.(A)
Job 1:10-17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
10 Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.(A) 11 But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”(B) 12 The Lord said to the accuser,[a] “Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!” So the accuser[b] went out from the presence of the Lord.
Job Loses Property and Children
13 One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell on them and carried them off and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.”(C) 16 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them; I alone have escaped to tell you.”(D) 17 While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three columns, made a raid on the camels and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.”(E)
Read full chapter
2 Chronicles 15:5-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 In those times it was not safe for anyone to go or come, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands.(A) 6 They were broken in pieces, nation against nation and city against city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress.(B)
Read full chapter
2 Kings 14:26
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
26 For the Lord saw that the distress of Israel was very bitter; there was no one left, bond or free, and no one to help Israel.(A)
Read full chapter
2 Kings 13:22
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Israel Recaptures Cities from Aram
22 Now King Hazael of Aram oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.(A)
Read full chapter
2 Kings 13:7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
7 So Jehoahaz was left with an army of not more than fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen, for the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.(A)
Read full chapter
2 Kings 8:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 At the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she set out to appeal to the king for her house and her land.
Read full chapter
2 Kings 4:8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Elisha Raises the Shunammite’s Son
8 One day Elisha was passing through Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to have a meal. So whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for a meal.(A)
Read full chapter
1 Samuel 2:5-7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.(A)
6 The Lord kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.(B)
7 The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low; he also exalts.(C)
Ruth 1:20-21
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
20 She said to them,
“Call me no longer Naomi;[a]
call me Mara,[b]
for the Almighty[c] has dealt bitterly with me.(A)
21 I went away full,
but the Lord has brought me back empty;
why call me Naomi
when the Lord has dealt harshly with[d] me
and the Almighty[e] has brought calamity upon me?”(B)
Judges 6:3-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 For whenever the Israelites put in seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them.(A) 4 They would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land, as far as the neighborhood of Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, nor any sheep or ox or donkey.(B) 5 For they and their livestock would come up, and they would even bring their tents, as thick as locusts; neither they nor their camels could be counted, so they wasted the land as they came in.(C) 6 Thus Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.(D)
Read full chapter
Exodus 1:13-14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
13 The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude 14 and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.(A)
Read full chapter
Genesis 45:11
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
11 I will provide for you there, since there are five more years of famine to come, so that you and your household and all that you have will not come to poverty.’
Read full chapterNew Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.