Proverbs 22:16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
16 Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself,
and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss.
Proverbs 22:22-23
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
22 Do not rob the poor because they are poor
or crush the afflicted at the gate,(A)
23 for the Lord pleads their cause
and despoils of life those who despoil them.(B)
James 2:13
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.(A)
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Psalm 12:5
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5 “Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,
I will now rise up,” says the Lord;
“I will place them in the safety for which they long.”(A)
James 5:1-5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Warning to Rich Oppressors
5 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. 2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten.(A) 3 Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure[a] during the last days. 4 Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.(B) 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.(C)
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- 5.3 Or will eat your flesh, since you have stored up fire
Luke 14:12-14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.(A) 14 And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
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Luke 6:33-35
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33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.[a] Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.(A)
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- 6.35 Other ancient authorities read despairing of no one
Proverbs 28:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 A poor person who oppresses the poor
is a beating rain that leaves no food.(A)
Proverbs 14:31
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
31 Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker,
but those who are kind to the needy honor him.(A)
Luke 16:24
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
24 He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.’(A)
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Zechariah 7:9-14
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9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another;(A) 10 do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.(B) 11 But they refused to listen and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears in order not to hear.(C) 12 They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.(D) 13 Just as, when I[a] called, they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the Lord of hosts,(E) 14 and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and a pleasant land was made desolate.”(F)
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- 7.13 Heb he
Proverbs 28:22
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
22 The miser is in a hurry to get rich
and does not know that loss is sure to come.
Job 20:19-29
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
19 For they have crushed and abandoned the poor;
they have seized a house that they did not build.(A)
20 “For they knew no quiet in their bellies;
in their greed they let nothing escape.(B)
21 There was nothing left after they had eaten;
therefore their prosperity will not endure.(C)
22 In full sufficiency they will be in distress;
all the force of misery will come upon them.
23 To fill their belly to the full,
God[a] will send his fierce anger into them
and rain it upon them as their food.(D)
24 They will flee from an iron weapon;
a bronze arrow will strike them through.(E)
25 It is drawn forth and comes out of their body,
and the glittering point comes out of their gall;
terrors come upon them.(F)
26 Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures;
a fire fanned by no one will devour them;
what is left in their tent will be consumed.(G)
27 The heavens will reveal their iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against them.(H)
28 The possessions of their house will be carried away,
dragged off in the day of God’s[b] wrath.(I)
29 This is the portion of the wicked from God,
the heritage decreed for them by God.”(J)
Micah 2:2-3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 They covet fields and seize them,
houses and take them away;
they oppress householder and house,
people and their inheritance.(A)
3 Therefore thus says the Lord:
Now, I am devising against this family an evil
from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk arrogantly,
for it will be an evil time.(B)
New 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.