Isaiah 1:23

I will bring these to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it,” says Yahweh.

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.

They say continually to those who despise me, ‘Yahweh has said, “You will have peace;” ’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, ‘No evil will come on you.’

You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety toward their own family and to repay their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God.

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.

Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to Yahweh’s law.

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

“For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness. From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.

They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.

but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith,

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

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

“ ‘If anyone sins, in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, he being a witness, whether he has seen or known, if he doesn’t report it, then he shall bear his iniquity.

“ ‘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 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.”

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.

“Let’s break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us.”

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

for they call themselves citizens of the holy city, and rely on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name.

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.

Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‘Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, are these.’

“Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don’t let Judah offend; and don’t come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, ‘As Yahweh lives.’

The rebels are deep in slaughter; but I discipline all of them.

Yahweh says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:

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.

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.’

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’

Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, rest on the law, glory in God,

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.

We know that whoever is born of God doesn’t sin, but he who was born of God keeps himself, and the evil one doesn’t touch him.

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

and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahweh would not pardon.

Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?

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

He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live.

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

Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.

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.

He went up and down among the lions. He became a young lion. He learned to catch the prey. He devoured men.

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

They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.

They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.

Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.

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.

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

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.

To those who sold the doves, he said, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!”

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.

whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake.

Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly;

having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;

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

You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge;

A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice for the innocent!

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!

I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;

because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger: they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

“Son of man, you dwell in the middle of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and don’t see, who have ears to hear, and don’t hear; for they are a rebellious house.

Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.

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.

If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment and the judges judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.

Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted Yahweh’s house which he had made holy in Jerusalem.

You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

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

A bribe is a precious stone in the eyes of him who gives it; wherever he turns, he prospers.

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

Whoever is an accomplice of a thief is an enemy of his own soul. He takes an oath, but dares not testify.

Open your mouth, judge righteously, and serve justice to the poor and needy.”

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

Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.

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—

I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

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

In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord Yahweh.

Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.

“All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.

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.”

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.

He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”

He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers!”

saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.