Oppression

 

The LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

• Exodus 3:7-10

 

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, lest he cry against you to the LORD, and it be sin to you.

• Deuteronomy 24:14-15

 

“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty. But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’ There they cry, but no one answers, because of the pride of evil men.

• Job 35:9-12

 

The LORD will also be a high tower for the oppressed; a high tower in times of trouble. Those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

• Psalm 9:9-10

 

LORD, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear, to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that man who is of the earth may terrify no more.

• Psalm 10:17-18

 

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

• Psalm 12:5

 

He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces.

• Psalm 72:4

 

For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper. He will have pity on the poor and needy. He will save the souls of the needy. He will redeem their soul from oppression and violence. Their blood will be precious in his sight.

• Psalm 72:12-14

 

“Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”

• Psalm 82:3-4

 

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

 

He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.

• Proverbs 14:31

 

Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.

• Proverbs 22:16

 

Don’t exploit the poor because he is poor; and don’t crush the needy in court; for the LORD will plead their case, and plunder the life of those who plunder them.

• Proverbs 22:22-23

 

A needy man who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain which leaves no crops.

• Proverbs 28:3

 

Open your mouth for the mute, in the cause of all who are left desolate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and serve justice to the poor and needy.”

• Proverbs 31:8-9

 

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. Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive. Yes, better than them both is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

• Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

 

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

 

“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you, and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly; and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday;

• Isaiah 58:6-10

 

The LORD 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.

• Jeremiah 22:3

 

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; he who hasn’t lent to them with interest, hasn’t taken any increase from them, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man,

• Ezekiel 18:7-8

 

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.

• Ezekiel 22:7

 

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.

• Ezekiel 22:29

 

Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, “Bring us drinks!” The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness, “Behold, the days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks. You will go out at the breaks in the wall, everyone straight before her; and you will cast yourselves into Harmon,” says the LORD.

• Amos 4:1-3

 

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

 

Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, then take them away. They oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. Therefore the LORD says: “Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster, from which you will not remove your necks, neither will you walk haughtily, for it is an evil time.

• Micah 2:1-3

 

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.’ But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.

• Zechariah 7:10-11

 

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

• Luke 4:18-19

 

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you.

• James 5:1-6