Isaiah 10:1
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10 Woe to those who make iniquitous decrees,
who write oppressive statutes,(A)
Luke 11:52
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52 Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”(A)
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Matthew 23:23
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23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.(A)
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Micah 3:1-4
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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)
4 Then they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
he will hide his face from them at that time
because they have acted wickedly.(D)
Habakkuk 2:6
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The Woes of the Wicked
6 Shall not everyone taunt such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them,
“Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!”
How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?(A)
Isaiah 5:8
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Social Injustice Denounced
8 Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is room for no one,
and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land!(A)
Psalm 94:20-21
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20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
those who contrive mischief by statute?(A)
21 They band together against the life of the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.(B)
Jude 11
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11 Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain and perish in Korah’s rebellion.(A)
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John 19:6
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6 When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.”(A)
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John 9:22
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22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus[a] to be the Messiah[b] would be put out of the synagogue.(A)
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Luke 11:46-47
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46 And he said, “Woe also to you experts in the law! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.(A) 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed.(B)
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Luke 11:42-44
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42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others.(A) 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces.(B) 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves on which people unknowingly walk.”(C)
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Matthew 26:24
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24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.”
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Matthew 23:29
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29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous,
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Matthew 23:27
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27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of uncleanness.
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Habakkuk 2:12
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12 “Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed
and found a city on iniquity!”(A)
Habakkuk 2:9
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9 “Alas for you who get evil gain for your house,
setting your nest on high
to be safe from the reach of harm!”(A)
Micah 6:16
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16 For you have kept the statutes of Omri[a]
and all the works of the house of Ahab,
and you have followed their counsels.
Therefore I will make you a desolation and your[b] inhabitants an object of hissing,
so you shall bear the scorn of my people.(A)
Matthew 23:13-16
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13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.[a](A) 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell[b] as yourselves.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides who say, ‘Whoever swears by the sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary is bound by the oath.’(B)
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Matthew 11:21
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21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.(A)
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Habakkuk 2:19
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19 Alas for you who say to the wood, “Wake up!”
to silent stone, “Rouse yourself!”
Can it teach?
See, it is gold and silver plated,
and there is no breath in it at all.(A)
Habakkuk 2:15
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15 “Alas for you who make your neighbors drink,
pouring out your wrath until they are drunk,
in order to gaze on their nakedness!”(A)
Micah 3:9-11
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9 Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
and pervert all equity,(A)
10 who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with wrong!(B)
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.”(C)
Daniel 6:8-9
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8 Now, O king, establish the interdict and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.”(A) 9 Therefore King Darius signed the document and interdict.(B)
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Jeremiah 22:13
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13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness
and his upper rooms by injustice,
who makes his neighbors work for nothing
and does not give them their wages,(A)
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.