Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous—both are detestable to the LORD.

This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will enter through the gates of this palace riding on chariots and horses—they and their officials and their people. But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by Myself, declares the LORD, that this house will become a pile of rubble.’”

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

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; deliver me from deceitful and unjust men.

If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.

You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

An unjust man is detestable to the righteous, and one whose way is upright is detestable to the wicked.

Open your mouth for those with no voice, for the cause of all the dispossessed. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the poor and needy.

However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and lay my cause before Him— the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number. He gives rain to the earth and sends water upon the fields. He sets the lowly on high, so that mourners are lifted to safety. He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success. . . .

Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty.

Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

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

So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God.

“For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”

Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him.

“You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness. You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd. And do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected men. And there was a widow in that town who kept appealing to him, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men, yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Then she will stop wearing me out with her perpetual requests.’” . . .

Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.

He who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.

The LORD within her is righteous; He does no wrong. He applies His justice morning by morning; He does not fail at dawn, yet the unjust know no shame.

Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder. What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

Though grace is shown to the wicked man, he does not learn righteousness. In the land of righteousness he acts unjustly and fails to see the majesty of the LORD.

Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits.

To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land, to deny a man justice before the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit—of these the Lord does not approve.

Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and He will repay the lender.

Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed.”

Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke?

Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate, for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who rob them.

He who increases his wealth by interest and usury lays it up for one who is kind to the poor.

You must not mistreat any widow or orphan.

Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder. What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth? Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised. Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath. . . .

Blessed are those who uphold justice, who practice righteousness at all times.

Surely judgment will again be righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it. Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will stand for me against the workers of iniquity?

and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.

Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich will surely lead to poverty.

to deny a man justice before the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit—of these the Lord does not approve.

You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.

In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.

Differing weights and unequal measures—both are detestable to the LORD.

But Joseph replied, “Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.

Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the LORD.

A wicked man takes a covert bribe to subvert the course of justice.

The righteous consider the cause of the poor, but the wicked have no regard for such concerns.

‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” “Do not take money by force or false accusation,” he said. “Be content with your wages.”

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His loving devotion.

For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David. Do you indeed speak justly, O rulers? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men? No, in your hearts you devise injustice; with your hands you mete out violence on the earth.

Let the unrighteous continue to be unrighteous, and the vile continue to be vile; let the righteous continue to practice righteousness, and the holy continue to be holy.”

So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.

Why, O LORD, do You stand far off? Why do You hide in times of trouble? In pride the wicked pursue the needy; let them be caught in the schemes they devise. For the wicked man boasts in the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD. In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all his schemes there is no God. He is secure in his ways at all times; Your lofty judgments are far from him; he sneers at all his foes. . . .

A prayer of David. Hear, O LORD, my righteous plea; listen to my cry. Give ear to my prayer—it comes from lips free of deceit. May my vindication come from Your presence; may Your eyes see what is right. You have tried my heart; You have visited me in the night. You have tested me and found no evil; I have resolved not to sin with my mouth. As for the deeds of men—by the word of Your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. My steps have held to Your paths; my feet have not slipped. . . .

Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is His delight.

But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also;

When the wicked man dies, his hope perishes, and the hope of his strength vanishes.

lest they drink and forget what is decreed, depriving all the oppressed of justice.

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not!

Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted. For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.

Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.

You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt. You must not mistreat any widow or orphan.

Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

“Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek Me and delight to know My ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not forsake the justice of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.” “Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress all your workers. You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high. Is this the fast I have chosen: a day for a man to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the LORD? . . .

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, all his army, all the earthly kingdoms under his control, and all the other nations were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding cities. The LORD, the God of Israel, told Jeremiah to go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him that this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. And you yourself will not escape his grasp, but will surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You will see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face; and you will go to Babylon. Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; you will die in peace. As spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so people will burn spices for you and lament, ‘Alas, O master!’ For I Myself have spoken this word, declares the LORD.” . . .

You must not use dishonest measures of length, weight, or volume.

You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Then Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. And He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You avenge our blood and judge those who dwell upon the earth?”

“This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Administer true justice. Show loving devotion and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can guide the whole animal. Consider ships as well. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot is inclined. In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts of great things. Consider how small a spark sets a great forest ablaze. . . .

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you are thoroughly defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?

if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels

Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.

‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,

If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents

for the LORD disciplines the one He loves, as does a father the son in whom he delights. Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who acquires understanding, for she is more profitable than silver, and her gain is better than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire compares with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. . . .

For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning? I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest. Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In You our fathers trusted; they trusted and You delivered them. They cried out to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disappointed. . . .

before the LORD, for He is coming—He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness. The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the distant shores be glad. Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation. Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side. His lightning illuminates the world; the earth sees and trembles. . . .

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him—even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.

Rejoice over her, O heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.

For His judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. He has avenged the blood of His servants that was poured out by her hand.”

When Samuel died, all Israel gathered to mourn for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the Wilderness of Paran. Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. He was a very wealthy man with a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. His name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was harsh and evil in his dealings. While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. So David sent ten young men and instructed them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel. Greet him in my name . . .

As soon as night had fallen, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.

Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they will not become discouraged.

Thus the administrators and satraps sought a charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no charge or corruption, because he was trustworthy, and no negligence or corruption was found in him.

So Joseph’s master took him and had him thrown into the prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. While Joseph was there in the prison,

who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.

Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you. Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days. Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. . . .

“Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days? Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks. They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge. They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding. Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children. . . .

Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For their fathers treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.

The poor man is hated even by his neighbor, but many are those who love the rich.

A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape.

Unequal weights are detestable to the LORD, and dishonest scales are no good.

He who has an ear, let him hear: “If anyone is destined for captivity, into captivity he will go; if anyone is to die by the sword, by the sword he must be killed.” Here is a call for the perseverance and faith of the saints. Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon.