Isaiah 5:7

5:7 Indeed ¹  Israel ²  is the vineyard of the Lord who commands armies,

the people ³  of Judah are the cultivated place in which he took delight.

He waited for justice, but look what he got – disobedience! ⁴ 

He waited for fairness, but look what he got – cries for help! ⁵ 

Isaiah 30:12

30:12 For this reason this is what the Holy One of Israel says:

“You have rejected this message; ⁶ 

you trust instead in your ability to oppress and trick, ⁷ 

and rely on that kind of behavior. ⁸ 

Isaiah 59:13

59:13 We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord;

we turned back from following our God.

We stir up ⁹  oppression and rebellion;

we tell lies we concocted in our minds. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 6:6

6:6 All of this is because ¹¹  the Lord who rules over all ¹²  has said:

‘Cut down the trees around Jerusalem

and build up a siege ramp against its walls. ¹³ 

This is the city which is to be punished. ¹⁴ 

Nothing but oppression happens in it. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 22:17

22:17 But you are always thinking and looking

for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means.

Your eyes and your heart are set

on killing some innocent person

and committing fraud and oppression. ¹⁶ 

Ezekiel 22:7

22:7 They have treated father and mother with contempt ¹⁷  within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow ¹⁸  within you.

Ezekiel 22:29

22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. ¹⁹ 

Amos 3:9

Samaria Will Fall

3:9 Make this announcement in ²⁰  the fortresses of Ashdod

and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt.

Say this:

“Gather on the hills around Samaria! ²¹ 

Observe the many acts of violence ²²  taking place within the city, ²³ 

the oppressive deeds ²⁴  occurring in it.” ²⁵ 

Amos 4:1

4:1 Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan ²⁶  who live on Mount Samaria!

You ²⁷  oppress the poor;

you crush the needy.

You say to your ²⁸  husbands,

“Bring us more to drink!” ²⁹ 

Micah 2:2

2:2 They confiscate the fields they desire,

and seize the houses they want. ³⁰ 

They defraud people of their homes, ³¹ 

and deprive people of the land they have inherited. ³² 

Zechariah 7:10

7:10 You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow human being.’

Malachi 3:5

3:5 “I ³³  will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, ³⁴  and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, ³⁵  who refuse to help ³⁶  the immigrant ³⁷  and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

[5:7]  ¹ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[5:7]  ² tn Heb “the house of Israel” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[5:7]  ³ tn Heb “men,” but in a generic sense.

[5:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “but, look, disobedience.” The precise meaning of מִשְׂפָּח (mishpakh), which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain. Some have suggested a meaning “bloodshed.” The term is obviously chosen for its wordplay value; it sounds very much like מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “justice”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[5:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “but, look, a cry for help.” The verb (“he waited”) does double duty in the parallelism. צְעָקָה (tsa’qah) refers to the cries for help made by the oppressed. It sounds very much like צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “fairness”). The sound play draws attention to the point being made; the people have not met the Lord’s expectations.

[30:12]  ⁶ tn The sentence actually begins with the word “because.” In the Hebrew text vv. 12-13 are one long sentence.

[30:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “and you trust in oppression and cunning.”

[30:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and you lean on it”; NAB “and depend on it.”

[59:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “speaking.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[59:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.”

[6:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “For.” The translation attempts to make the connection clearer.

[6:6]  ¹² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[6:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “Cut down its trees and build up a siege ramp against Jerusalem.” The referent has been moved forward from the second line for clarity.

[6:6]  ¹⁴ tn Or “must be punished.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. The LXX reads, “Woe, city of falsehood!” The MT presents two anomalies: a masculine singular verb with a feminine singular subject in a verbal stem (Hophal) that elsewhere does not have the meaning “is to be punished.” Hence many follow the Greek which presupposes הוֹי עִיר הַשֶּׁקֶר (hoy ’ir hasheqer) instead of הִיא הָעִיר הָפְקַד (hi’ ha’ir hofqad). The Greek is the easier reading in light of the parallelism, and it would be hard to explain how the MT arose from it. KBL suggests reading a noun meaning “licentiousness” which occurs elsewhere only in Mishnaic Hebrew, hence “this is the city, the licentious one” (attributive apposition; cf. KBL 775 s.v. פֶּקֶר). Perhaps the Hophal perfect (הָפְקַד, hofÿqad) should be revocalized as a Niphal infinitive absolute (הִפָּקֹד, hippaqod); this would solve both anomalies in the MT since the Niphal is used in this nuance and the infinitive absolute can function in place of a finite verb (cf. GKC 346 §113.ee and ff). This, however, is mere speculation and is supported by no Hebrew ms.

[6:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “All of it oppression in its midst.”

[22:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Your eyes and your heart do not exist except for dishonest gain and for innocent blood to shed [it] and for fraud and for oppression to do [them].” The sentence has been broken up to conform more to English style and the significance of “eyes” and “heart” explained before they are introduced into the translation.

[22:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “treated lightly, cursed.”

[22:7]  ¹⁸ tn Widows and orphans are often coupled together in the OT (Deut 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:19-21; 26:12-13; Jer 7:6; 22:3). They represented all who were poor and vulnerable to economic exploitation.

[22:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”

[3:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “on” or “over” (also later in this verse).

[3:9]  ²¹ sn Samaria might refer here both to the region and to the capital city (later known as Sebaste). On the other hand, there actually are hills that surround the mound upon which the city was built. The implication is that the nations can come and sit and see from those hills the sin of the capital city and its judgment.

[3:9]  ²² tn The Hebrew noun carries the nuance of “panic” or “confusion.” Here it refers metonymically to the violent deeds that terrorize the oppressed.

[3:9]  ²³ tn Heb “in her midst” (so NAB, NASB); NIV “among her people.”

[3:9]  ²⁴ tn The translation assumes the form is an abstract plural (see Job 35:9; Eccl 4:1). Another option is to understand the form as a substantival passive participle and translate, “the oppressed” (so KJV).

[3:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “within her.”

[4:1]  ²⁶ sn The expression cows of Bashan is used by the prophet to address the wealthy women of Samaria, who demand that their husbands satisfy their cravings. The derogatory language perhaps suggests that they, like the livestock of Bashan, were well fed, ironically in preparation for the coming slaughter. This phrase is sometimes cited to critique the book’s view of women.

[4:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the ones who” (three times in this verse).

[4:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “their.”

[4:1]  ²⁹ sn Some commentators relate this scene to the description of the marzeah feast of 6:3-6, in which drinking played a prominent part (see the note at 6:6).

[2:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “they desire fields and rob [them], and houses and take [them] away.”

[2:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “and they oppress a man and his home.”

[2:2]  ³² 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.

[3:5]  ³³ tn The first person pronoun (a reference to the Lord) indicates that the Lord himself now speaks (see also v. 1). The prophet speaks in vv. 2-4 (see also 2:17).

[3:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “those who swear [oaths] falsely.” Cf. NIV “perjurers”; TEV “those who give false testimony”; NLT “liars.”

[3:5]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and against the oppressors of the worker for a wage, [the] widow and orphan.”

[3:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “those who turn aside.”

[3:5]  ³⁷ tn Or “resident foreigner”; NIV “aliens”; NRSV “the alien.”