Bible Verses About Oppression

For thus said the Lord Jehovah: `To Egypt My people went down at first to sojourn there, And Asshur--for nought he hath oppressed it.

Is not this the fast that I chose--To loose the bands of wickedness, To shake off the burdens of the yoke, And to send out the oppressed free, And every yoke ye draw off?

O house of David, thus said Jehovah: Decide ye judgment at morning, And deliver the plundered from the hand of the oppressor, Lest My fury go forth as fire, And hath burned, and none is quenching, Because of the evil of your doings.

But thine eyes and thy heart are not, Except on thy dishonest gain, And on shedding of innocent blood, And on oppression, and on doing of violence.

Their Redeemer is strong, Jehovah of Hosts is His name, He doth thoroughly plead their cause, So as to cause the land to rest, And He hath given trouble to the inhabitants of Babylon.

Father and mother made light of in thee, To a sojourner they dealt oppressively in thy midst, Fatherless and widow they oppressed in thee.

The people of the land have used oppression, And have taken plunder violently away, And humble and needy have oppressed, And the sojourner oppressed--without judgment.

`Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Enough to you--princes of Israel; violence and spoil turn aside, and judgment and righteousness do; lift up your exactions from off My people--an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, Who are in the mountain of Samaria, Who are oppressing the poor, Who are bruising the needy, Who are saying to their lords: `Bring in, and we do drink.'

Therefore, because of your trampling on the poor, And the tribute of corn ye take from him, Houses of hewn work ye have built, And ye do not dwell in them, Desirable vineyards ye have planted, And ye do not drink their wine.

For I have known--many are your transgressions, And mighty your sins, Adversaries of the righteous, taking ransoms, And the needy in the gate ye turned aside.

Hear this, ye who are swallowing up the needy, To cause to cease the poor of the land,

Saying, When doth the new moon pass, And we sell ground corn? And the sabbath, and we open out pure corn? To make little the ephah, And to make great the shekel, And to use perversely balances of deceit.

To purchase with money the poor, And the needy for a pair of sandals, Yea, the refuse of the pure corn we sell.

Woe to those devising iniquity, And working evil on their beds, In the light of the morning they do it, For their hand is--to God.

And they have desired fields, And they have taken violently, And houses, and they have taken away, And have oppressed a man and his house, Even a man and his inheritance.

Therefore, thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am devising against this family evil, From which ye do not remove your necks, Nor walk loftily, for a time of evil it is .

And also, because the wine is treacherous, A man is haughty, and remaineth not at home, Who hath enlarged as sheol his soul, And is as death that is not satisfied, And doth gather unto itself all the nations, And doth assemble unto itself all the peoples,

Do not these--all of them--against him a simile taken up, And a moral of acute sayings for him, And say, Woe to him who is multiplying what is not his? Till when also is he multiplying to himself heavy pledges?

Do not thy usurers instantly rise up, And those shaking thee awake up, And thou hast been for a spoil to them?

Because thou hast spoiled many nations, Spoil thee do all the remnant of the peoples, Because of man's blood, and of violence to the land, To the city, and to all dwelling in it.

Woe to him who is gaining evil gain for his house, To set on high his nest, To be delivered from the hand of evil,

Thou hast counselled a shameful thing to thy house, To cut off many peoples, and sinful is thy soul.

For a stone from the wall doth cry out, And a holdfast from the wood answereth it.

And widow, and fatherless, Sojourner, and poor, ye do not oppress, And the calamity of one another ye do not devise in your heart.