Isaiah 1:23
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
23 Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
They do not defend the orphan,
and the widow’s cause does not come before them.(A)
Micah 7:3
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3 Their hands are skilled to do evil;
the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
thus they pervert justice.[a](A)
Footnotes
- 7.3 Cn: Heb they weave it
Zechariah 7:10
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10 do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.(A)
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Exodus 23:8
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8 You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds officials and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.(A)
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Luke 18:2-5
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2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’ 4 For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ”[a]
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- 18.5 Or so that she may not finally come and slap me in the face
Acts 4:5-11
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5 The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem,(A) 6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John,[a] and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.(B) 7 When they had made the prisoners[b] stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders,(C) 9 if we are being questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are being asked how this man has been healed,[c] 10 let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,[d] whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.(D) 11 This Jesus[e] is
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Luke 19:46
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46 and he said, “It is written,
‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’
but you have made it a den of robbers.”(A)
Mark 11:17
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17 He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?
But you have made it a den of robbers.”(A)
Matthew 21:13
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13 He said to them, “It is written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’
but you are making it a den of robbers.”(A)
Malachi 3:5
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5 Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow, and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.(A)
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Micah 3:11
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11 Its rulers give judgment for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
“Surely the Lord is with us!
No harm shall come upon us.”(A)
Micah 3:1-3
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Wicked Rulers and Prophets
3 And I said:
Listen, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
Should you not know justice?—(A)
2 you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin off my people[a]
and the flesh off their bones,(B)
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
flay their skin off them,
break their bones in pieces,
and chop them up like meat[b] in a kettle,
like flesh in a caldron.(C)
Hosea 9:15
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15 Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal;
there I came to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
all their officials are rebels.(A)
Hosea 7:3-5
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3 By their wickedness they make the king glad,
and the officials by their treachery.
4 They are all adulterers;
they are like a heated oven
whose baker does not need to stir the fire
from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.(A)
5 On the day of our king the officials
became sick with the heat of wine;
he stretched out his hand with mockers.(B)
Hosea 4:18
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18 When their drinking is ended, they indulge in sexual orgies;
they love lewdness more than their glory.[a](A)
Footnotes
- 4.18 Cn Compare Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
Daniel 9:5-6
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5 we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances.(A) 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.
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Ezekiel 22:6-12
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6 The princes of Israel in you, everyone according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood.(A) 7 Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you.(B) 8 You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths.(C) 9 In you are those who slander to shed blood, those in you who eat upon the mountains, who commit lewdness in your midst.(D) 10 In you they uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women during their menstrual periods.(E) 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you defiles his sister, his father’s daughter.(F) 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.(G)
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Jeremiah 22:17
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17 But your eyes and heart
are only on your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
and for practicing oppression and violence.(A)
Jeremiah 5:28-29
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28 they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;
they do not judge with justice
the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.(A)
29 Shall I not punish them for these things?
says the Lord,
and shall I not bring retribution
on a nation such as this?(B)
Jeremiah 5:5
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5 Let me go to the rich[a]
and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the Lord,
the law of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
they had burst the bonds.(A)
Footnotes
- 5.5 Or the great
Isaiah 33:15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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,
Isaiah 10:1-2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
10 Woe to those who make iniquitous decrees,
who write oppressive statutes,(A)
2 to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
to make widows their spoil
and to plunder orphans!(B)
Isaiah 3:14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
14 The Lord enters into judgment
with the elders and princes of his people:
It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses.(A)
Proverbs 29:24
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
24 To be a partner of a thief is to hate one’s own life;
one hears the victim’s curse but discloses nothing.[a](A)
Footnotes
- 29.24 Meaning of Heb uncertain
Proverbs 17:23
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
23 The wicked accept a concealed bribe
to pervert the ways of justice.(A)
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