Deuteronomy 24:17

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

“You shall not wrong an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing.

“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”

he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.

“How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?”

Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.

They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child.

“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.

“ ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness.

You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land.

‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.

His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned away after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.

and said to the judges, “Consider what you do, for you don’t judge for man, but for Yahweh; and he is with you in the judgment.

Don’t exploit the poor, because he is poor; and don’t crush the needy in court;

These also are sayings of the wise. To show partiality in judgment is not good.

Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.

Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”

to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

House of David, Yahweh says, ‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

“Therefore I have also made you contemptible and wicked before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law.

What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.

For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you.

“You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.

“ ‘You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. “ ‘The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.

If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge.

‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose hand have I taken a bribe to make me blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.”

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.

Surely extortion makes the wise man foolish; and a bribe destroys the understanding.

All this I have seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.

For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”

“What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?

“ ‘ “Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.

“ ‘ “Behold, therefore I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been within you.

Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

Her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.

Pilate decreed that what they asked for should be done.

Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God doesn’t show favoritism;

When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

For there is no partiality with God.

My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.

But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

If you take your neighbor’s garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down,

“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice.

“You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.”

For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons or take bribes.

When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them. You shall not cut them down, for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged by you?

If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”

because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—

God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods.

“Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

They break your people in pieces, Yahweh, and afflict your heritage.

A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, to pervert the ways of justice.

Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.

Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity.

Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together.

No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone as a pledge, for he takes a life in pledge.

You shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. It shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God.

lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the justice due to anyone who is afflicted.

If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one, and there are officials over them.

What do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor?” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

He who walks righteously and speaks blamelessly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil—

if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt;

Yahweh says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.

and has not wronged any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken nothing by robbery, has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment;

In you have they treated father and mother with contempt. Among you they have oppressed the foreigner. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow.

The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. Yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.

if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he will surely live. He will not die.

Don’t oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’

I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.

Soldiers also asked him, saying, “What about us? What must we do?” He said to them, “Extort from no one by violence, neither accuse anyone wrongfully. Be content with your wages.”

But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?

In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber.