Imamat 25:14

25:14 If you make a sale ¹  to your fellow citizen ²  or buy ³  from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother. ⁴ 

Imamat 25:17

25:17 No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, ⁵  but you must fear your God, because I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 25:1

Regulations for the Sabbatical Year

25:1 The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai:

1 Samuel 12:3-4

12:3 Here I am. Bring a charge against me before the Lord and before his chosen king. ⁶  Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I wronged? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe so that I would overlook something? Tell me, ⁷  and I will return it to you!”

12:4 They replied, “You have not wronged us or oppressed us. You have not taken anything from the hand of anyone.”

Amsal 22:22

22:22 Do not exploit ⁸  a poor person because he is poor

and do not crush the needy in court, ⁹ 

Yeremia 7:6

7:6 Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. ¹⁰  Stop killing innocent people ¹¹  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ¹²  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ¹³ 

Mikha 2:2

2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,

and seize the houses they want. ¹⁴ 

They defraud people of their homes, ¹⁵ 

and deprive people of the land they have inherited. ¹⁶ 

Zefanya 3:1

Jerusalem is Corrupt

3:1 The filthy, ¹⁷  stained city is as good as dead;

the city filled with oppressors is finished! ¹⁸ 

Yakobus 2:6

2:6 But you have dishonored the poor! ¹⁹  Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts?

[25:14]  ¹ tn Heb “sell a sale.”

[25:14]  ² tn Or “to one of your countrymen” (NIV); NASB “to your friend.”

[25:14]  ³ tn The Hebrew infinitive absolute קָנֹה (qanoh, “buying”) substitutes for the finite verb here in sequence with the previous finite verb “sell” at the beginning of the verse (see GKC 345 §113.z).

[25:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “do not oppress a man his brother.” Here “brother” does not refer only to a sibling, but to a fellow Israelite.

[25:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”

[12:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “anointed [one].”

[12:3]  ⁷ tn The words “tell me” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[22:22]  ⁸ tn Two negated jussives form the instruction here: אַל־תִּגְזָל (’al-tigzal, “do not exploit”) and וְאַל־תְּדַכֵּא (ve’al-tÿdakke’, “do not crush”).

[22:22]  sn Robbing or oppressing the poor is easy because they are defenseless. But this makes the crime tempting as well as contemptible. What is envisioned may be in bounds legally (just) but out of bounds morally.

[22:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “in the gate” (so KJV); NAB, NASB, NRSV “at the gate.” The “gate” of the city was the center of activity, the place of business as well as the place for settling legal disputes. The language of the next verse suggests a legal setting, so “court” is an appropriate translation here.

[7:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

[7:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”

[7:6]  ¹² tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[2:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”

[2:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”

[2:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and a man and his inheritance.” The verb עָשַׁק (’ashaq, “to oppress”; “to wrong”) does double duty in the parallel structure and is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[3:1]  ¹⁷ tn The present translation assumes מֹרְאָה (mor’ah) is derived from רֹאִי (ro’i,“excrement”; see Jastrow 1436 s.v. רֳאִי). The following participle, “stained,” supports this interpretation (cf. NEB “filthy and foul”; NRSV “soiled, defiled”). Another option is to derive the form from מָרָה (marah, “to rebel”); in this case the term should be translated “rebellious” (cf. NASB, NIV “rebellious and defiled”). This idea is supported by v. 2. For discussion of the two options, see HALOT 630 s.v. I מרא and J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 206.

[3:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Woe, soiled and stained one, oppressive city.” The verb “is finished” is supplied in the second line. On the Hebrew word הוֹי (hoy, “ah, woe”), see the note on the word “dead” in 2:5.

[3:1]  sn The following verses show that Jerusalem, personified as a woman (“she”), is the referent.

[2:6]  ¹⁹ tn This is singular: “the poor person,” perhaps referring to the hypothetical one described in vv. 2-3.