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does not take advance or accrued interest, withholds his hand from iniquity, executes true justice between contending parties,(A)

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25 “If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them.(A)

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16 These are the things that you shall do: speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace,(A)

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19 “You shall not charge interest on loans to another Israelite,[a] interest on money, interest on provisions, interest on anything that is lent.(A) 20 On loans to a foreigner you may charge interest, but on loans to another Israelite[b] you may not charge interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings in the land that you are about to enter and possess.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 23.19 Heb to your brother
  2. 23.20 Heb to your brother

35 “If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you,[a] you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens.(A) 36 Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you.(B) 37 You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance or provide them food at a profit.

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Footnotes

  1. 25.35 Meaning of Heb uncertain

12 In you, they take bribes to shed blood; you take both advance interest and accrued interest and make gain of your neighbors by extortion, and you have forgotten me, says the Lord God.(A)

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17 withholds his hand from iniquity,[a] takes no advance or accrued interest, observes my ordinances, and follows my statutes, he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live.

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Footnotes

  1. 18.17 Gk: Heb the poor

13 takes advance or accrued interest, shall he then live? He shall not. He has done all these abominable things; he shall surely be put to death; his blood shall be upon himself.(A)

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who do not lend money at interest
    and do not take a bribe against the innocent.

Those who do these things shall never be moved.(A)

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Municipal Judges and Officers

18 “You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes, in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall render just decisions for the people.(A) 19 You must not distort justice; you must not show partiality; and you must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.(B) 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

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16 I charged your judges at that time: ‘Give the members of your community a fair hearing and judge rightly between one person and another, whether kin or resident alien.(A) 17 You must not be partial in judging: hear out the small and the great alike; you shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. Any case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’(B)

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“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)

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15 Are you a king
    because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
    and do justice and righteousness?
    Then it was well with him.(A)
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
    then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
    says the Lord.(B)

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Jeremiah Complains Again and Is Reassured

10 Woe is me, my mother, that you ever bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me.(A)

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15 Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly,
    who despise the gain of oppression,
who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,
    who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed
    and shut their eyes from looking on evil,

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17     learn to do good;
seek justice;
    rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
    plead for the widow.(A)

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Speak out for those who cannot speak,
    for the rights of all the destitute.[a](A)
Speak out; judge righteously;
    defend the rights of the poor and needy.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 31.8 Heb all children of passing away

One who augments wealth by exorbitant interest
    gathers it for another who is kind to the poor.(A)

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When I went out to the gate of the city,
    when I took my seat in the square,
the young men saw me and withdrew,
    and the aged rose up and stood;
the nobles refrained from talking
    and laid their hands on their mouths;(A)
10 the voices of princes were hushed,
    and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.(B)
11 When the ear heard, it commended me,
    and when the eye saw, it approved,
12 because I delivered the poor who cried
    and the orphan who had no helper.(C)
13 The blessing of the wretched came upon me,
    and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.(D)
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
    my justice was like a robe and a turban.(E)
15 I was eyes to the blind
    and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy,
    and I championed the cause of the stranger.(F)
17 I broke the fangs of the unrighteous
    and made them drop their prey from their teeth.(G)

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15 The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took food and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so because of the fear of God.(A)

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Nehemiah Deals with Oppression

Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish kin.(A) For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many; we must get grain, so that we may eat and stay alive.” There were also those who said, “We are having to pledge our fields, our vineyards, and our houses in order to get grain during the famine.” And there were those who said, “We are having to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay the king’s tax.(B) Now our flesh is the same as that of our kindred; our children are the same as their children; and yet we are forcing our sons and daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been ravished; we are powerless, and our fields and vineyards now belong to others.”(C)

I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. After thinking it over, I contended with the nobles and the officials; I said to them, “You are all taking interest from your own people.” And I called a great assembly to deal with them(D) and said to them, “As far as we were able, we have bought back our Jewish kindred who had been sold to other nations, but now you are selling your own kin, who must then be bought back by us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say.(E) So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God, to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?(F) 10 Moreover I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us stop this taking of interest. 11 Restore to them, this very day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the interest on money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.”

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24 I was blameless before him,
    and I kept myself from guilt.(A)

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35 “You shall not cheat in measuring length, weight, or quantity.

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15 “You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.(A)

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