Zechariah 7:10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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)
Read full chapter
Jeremiah 5:28
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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)
1 John 3:15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
15 All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them.(A)
Read full chapter
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)
Psalm 72:4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor.(A)
Psalm 21:11
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
11 If they plan evil against you,
if they devise mischief, they will not succeed.(A)
James 5:4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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.(A)
Read full chapter
James 1:14-15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
14 But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15 then, when desire has conceived, it engenders sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.(A)
Read full chapter
1 Corinthians 6:10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.
Read full chapter
Mark 7:21-23
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Read full chapter
Matthew 23:13
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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)
Read full chapter
Malachi 3:5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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)
Read full chapter
Zechariah 8:17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
17 do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these are things that I hate, says the Lord.”(A)
Read full chapter
Zephaniah 3:1-3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Wickedness of Jerusalem
3 Woe, soiled, defiled,
oppressing city!(A)
2 It has listened to no voice;
it has accepted no correction.
It has not trusted in the Lord;
it has not drawn near to its God.(B)
3 The officials within it
are roaring lions;
its judges are evening wolves
that leave nothing until the morning.(C)
Micah 3:1-4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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)
Micah 2:1-3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Social Evils Denounced
2 Woe to those who devise wickedness
and evil deeds[a] on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in their power.(A)
2 They covet fields and seize them,
houses and take them away;
they oppress householder and house,
people and their inheritance.(B)
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.(C)
Footnotes
- 2.1 Cn: Heb work evil
Amos 5:11-12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
11 Therefore because you trample on the poor
and take from them levies of grain,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you shall not live in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.(A)
12 For I know how many are your transgressions
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe
and push aside the needy in the gate.(B)
Amos 4:1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan
who are on Mount Samaria,
who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
who say to their husbands, “Bring something to drink!”(A)
Ezekiel 22:29
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy and have extorted from the alien without justice.(A)
Read full chapter
Ezekiel 22:12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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)
Read full chapter
Ezekiel 22:7
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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.(A)
Read full chapter
Jeremiah 22:15-17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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)
17 But your eyes and heart
are only on your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
and for practicing oppression and violence.(C)
Jeremiah 18:18
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
A Plot against Jeremiah
18 Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him,[a] and let us not heed any of his words.”(A)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 18.18 Heb strike him with the tongue
Jeremiah 11:19-20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
19 But I was like a gentle lamb
led to the slaughter.
And I did not know it was against me
that they devised schemes, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will no longer be remembered!”(A)
20 But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.(B)
Isaiah 1:16-17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove your evil deeds
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil;(A)
17 learn to do good;
seek justice;
rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
plead for the widow.(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.