They (A)covet fields and take them by violence,
Also houses, and seize them.
So they oppress a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance.

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Impending Judgment on Excesses

Woe to those who [a]join (A)house to house;
They add field to field,
Till there is no place
Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 5:8 Accumulate houses

Hear this, you who [a]swallow up the needy,
And make the poor of the land fail,

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Footnotes

  1. Amos 8:4 Or trample on, Amos 2:7

17 “Yet(A) your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness,
For shedding innocent blood,
And practicing oppression and violence.”

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12 If he has oppressed the poor and needy,
Robbed by violence,
Not restored the pledge,
Lifted his eyes to the idols,
Or (A)committed abomination;

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10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

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13 “But (A)woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

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And I will come near you for judgment;
I will be a swift witness
Against sorcerers,
Against adulterers,
(A)Against perjurers,
Against those who (B)exploit wage earners and (C)widows and orphans,
And against those who turn away an alien—
Because they do not fear Me,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

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Now hear this,
You heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who abhor justice
And [a]pervert all equity,

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Footnotes

  1. Micah 3:9 Lit. twist

12 In you (A)they take bribes to shed blood; (B)you take usury and increase; you have made profit from your neighbors by extortion, and (C)have forgotten Me,” says the Lord God.

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38 “If my land cries out against me,
And its furrows weep together;

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Some remove (A)landmarks;
They seize flocks violently and feed on them;
They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
They (B)take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
They push the needy off the road;
All the (C)poor of the land are forced to hide.
Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert,
They go out to their work, searching for food.
The wilderness yields food for them and for their children.
They gather their fodder in the field
And glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
They (D)spend the night naked, without clothing,
And have no covering in the cold.
They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
And (E)huddle around the rock for want of shelter.

Some snatch the fatherless from the breast,
And take a pledge from the poor.
10 They cause the poor to go naked, without (F)clothing;
And they take away the sheaves from the hungry.
11 They press out oil within their walls,
And tread winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
12 The dying groan in the city,
And the souls of the wounded cry out;
Yet God does not charge them with wrong.

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Nehemiah Deals with Oppression

And there was a great (A)outcry of the people and their wives against their (B)Jewish brethren. For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”

There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”

There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. Yet now (C)our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we (D)are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.”

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26 ‘Surely I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,’ says the Lord, (A)‘and I will repay you [a]in this plot,’ says the Lord. Now therefore, take and throw him on the plot of ground, according to the word of the Lord.”

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 9:26 on this property

So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your (A)vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near, next to my house; and for it I will give you a vineyard better than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money.”

But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid (B)that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!”

So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food. But (C)Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, “Why is your spirit so sullen that you eat no food?”

He said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ And he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’ ”

Then Jezebel his wife said to him, “You now exercise authority over Israel! Arise, eat food, and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

And she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth. She wrote in the letters, saying,

Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth [a]with high honor among the people; 10 and seat two men, scoundrels, before him to bear witness against him, saying, “You have (D)blasphemed God and the king.” Then take him out, and (E)stone him, that he may die.

11 So the men of his city, the elders and nobles who were inhabitants of his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. 12 (F)They proclaimed a fast, and seated Naboth with high honor among the people. 13 And two men, scoundrels, came in and sat before him; and the scoundrels (G)witnessed against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth has blasphemed God and the king!” (H)Then they took him outside the city and stoned him with stones, so that he died. 14 Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned and is dead.”

15 And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” 16 So it was, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab got up and went down to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

The Lord Condemns Ahab

17 (I)Then the word of the Lord came to (J)Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 18 “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, (K)who lives in Samaria. There he is, in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. 19 You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Have you murdered and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: (L)“In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.” ’ ”

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 21:9 Lit. at the head

Here I am. Witness against me before the Lord and before (A)His anointed: (B)Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken, or whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed, or from whose hand have I received any (C)bribe with which to (D)blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.”

And they said, (E)“You have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man’s hand.”

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21 (A)“You shall neither mistreat a [a]stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

22 (B)“You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you afflict them in any way, and they (C)cry at all to Me, I will surely (D)hear their cry; 24 and My (E)wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; (F)your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

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Footnotes

  1. Exodus 22:21 sojourner

17 (A)“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; (B)you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

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Woe to the Wicked

“Indeed, because he transgresses by wine,
He is a proud man,
And he does not stay at home.
Because he (A)enlarges his desire as [a]hell,
And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied,
He gathers to himself all nations
And heaps up for himself all peoples.

“Will not all these (B)take up a proverb against him,
And a taunting riddle against him, and say,
‘Woe to him who increases
What is not his—how long?
And to him who loads himself with [b]many pledges’?
Will not [c]your creditors rise up suddenly?
Will they not awaken who oppress you?
And you will become their booty.
(C)Because you have plundered many nations,
All the remnant of the people shall plunder you,
Because of men’s [d]blood
And the violence of the land and the city,
And of all who dwell in it.

“Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house,
That he may (D)set his nest on high,
That he may be delivered from the [e]power of disaster!

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Footnotes

  1. Habakkuk 2:5 Or Sheol
  2. Habakkuk 2:6 Syr., Vg. thick clay
  3. Habakkuk 2:7 Lit. those who bite you
  4. Habakkuk 2:8 Or bloodshed
  5. Habakkuk 2:9 Lit. hand of evil

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