Injustice
“You shall not spread a false report. Don’t join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness. “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 favor a poor man in his cause.
- Exodus 23:1-3
“You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. “Keep far from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked. “You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
- Exodus 23:6-8
“‘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.
- Leviticus 19:15
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 follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.
- Deuteronomy 16:19-20
‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
- Deuteronomy 27:19
“If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me, what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him? Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?
- Job 31:13-15
God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day. If a man doesn’t repent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow.
- Psalm 7:11-12
For the LORD loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
- Psalm 37:28
For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm. They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment. Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit. They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression. They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth. Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance. They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.
- Psalm 73:3-12
Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you, which brings about mischief by statute? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. But the LORD has been my high tower, my God, the rock of my refuge. He has brought on them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their own wickedness. The LORD, our God, will cut them off.
- Psalm 94:20-23
The LORD executes righteous acts, and justice for all who are oppressed.
- Psalm 103:6
who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD frees the prisoners. The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD raises up those who are bowed down. The LORD loves the righteous. The LORD preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but he turns the way of the wicked upside down.
- Psalm 146:7-9
A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but accurate weights are his delight.
- Proverbs 11:1
He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.
- Proverbs 17:15
To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
- Proverbs 21:3
He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
- Proverbs 22:8
Evil men don’t understand justice; but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.
- Proverbs 28:5
The righteous care about justice for the poor. The wicked aren’t concerned about knowledge.
- Proverbs 29:7
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. I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”
- Ecclesiastes 3:16-17
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. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field.
- Ecclesiastes 5:8-9
Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”
- Isaiah 1:17
Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees to deprive the needy of 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! What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?
- Isaiah 10:1-3
Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter. Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
- Isaiah 59:14-15
Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take taxes from him of wheat, you have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are 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. Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say. Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that the LORD, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
- Amos 5:11-15
But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
- Amos 5:24
He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
- Micah 6:8
LORD, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save? Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.
- Habakkuk 1:2-4
“Thus has the LORD of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’
- Zechariah 7:9-10
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
- Matthew 23:23-24
He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray and not give up, saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God and didn’t respect man. A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’ He wouldn’t for a while; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.’” The Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says. Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them? I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
- Luke 18:1-8
