Verse 23

Your officials are rebels, they associate with thieves. All of them love bribery, and look for payoffs. They do not take up the cause of the orphan, or defend the rights of the widow.

Referenced Verses

  • Exod 23:8 : 8 “You must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and subverts the words of the righteous.
  • Mic 7:3 : 3 They are experts at doing evil; government officials and judges take bribes, prominent men announce what they wish and then they plan it out.
  • Zech 7:10 : 10 You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the resident foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow citizen.’
  • Mal 3:5 : 5 “I 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, and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, who refuse to help the resident foreigner and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.
  • Matt 21:13 : 13 And he said to them,“It is written,‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are turning it into a den of robbers!”
  • Mark 11:17 : 17 Then he began to teach them and said,“Is it not written:‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!”
  • Luke 18:2-5 : 2 He said,“In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. 3 There was also a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying,‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but later on he said to himself,‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, 5 yet because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.’”
  • Luke 19:46 : 46 saying to them,“It is written,‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of robbers!”
  • Acts 4:5-9 : 5 On the next day, their rulers, elders, and experts in the law came together in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others who were members of the high priest’s family. 7 After making Peter and John stand in their midst, they began to inquire,“By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, replied,“Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today for a good deed done to a sick man– by what means this man was healed– 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands before you healthy. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, that has become the cornerstone.
  • Deut 16:19 : 19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort the words of the righteous.
  • 2 Chr 24:17-21 : 17 After Jehoiada died, the officials of Judah visited the king and declared their loyalty to him. The king listened to their advice. 18 They abandoned the temple of the LORD God of their ancestors, and worshiped the Asherah poles and idols. Because of this sinful activity, God was angry with Judah and Jerusalem. 19 The LORD sent prophets among them to lead them back to him. They warned the people, but they would not pay attention. 20 God’s Spirit energized Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said to them,“This is what God says:‘Why are you violating the commands of the LORD? You will not be prosperous! Because you have rejected the LORD, he has rejected you!’” 21 They plotted against him and by royal decree stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD’s temple.
  • 2 Chr 36:14 : 14 All the leaders of the priests and people became more unfaithful and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations. They defiled the LORD’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
  • Prov 17:23 : 23 A wicked person receives a bribe secretly to pervert the ways of justice.
  • Prov 29:24 : 24 Whoever shares with a thief is his own enemy; he hears the oath to testify, but does not talk.
  • Isa 3:14 : 14 The LORD comes to pronounce judgment on the leaders of his people and their officials. He says,“It is you who have ruined the vineyard! You have stashed in your houses what you have stolen from the poor.
  • Isa 10:1-2 : 1 Beware, those who enact unjust policies, those who are always instituting unfair regulations, 2 to keep the poor from getting fair treatment, and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice, so they can steal what widows own, and loot what belongs to orphans.
  • Isa 33:15 : 15 The one who lives uprightly and speaks honestly; the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures and rejects a bribe; the one who does not plot violent crimes and does not seek to harm others–
  • Jer 5:5 : 5 I will go to the leaders and speak with them. Surely they know what the LORD demands. Surely they know what their God requires of them.” Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority and refuse to submit to him.
  • Jer 5:28-29 : 28 That is how they have grown fat and sleek. There is no limit to the evil things they do. They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it. They do not defend the rights of the poor. 29 I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the LORD.“I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!
  • Jer 22:17 : 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.
  • Ezek 22:6-9 : 6 “‘See how each of the princes of Israel living within you has used his authority to shed blood. 7 They have treated father and mother with contempt within you; they have oppressed the resident foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow within you. 8 You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths! 9 Slanderous men shed blood within you. Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains; they commit obscene acts among you. 10 They have sexual relations with their father’s wife within you; they violate women during their menstrual period within you. 11 One commits an abominable act with his neighbor’s wife; another obscenely defiles his daughter-in-law; another violates his sister– his father’s daughter– within you. 12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD.
  • Dan 9:5-6 : 5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, and to all the inhabitants of the land as well.
  • Hos 4:18 : 18 The Shameful Sinners Will Be Brought to Shame They consume their alcohol, then engage in cult prostitution; they dearly love their shameful behavior.
  • Hos 7:3-5 : 3 Political Intrigue and Conspiracy in the Palace The royal advisers delight the king with their evil schemes, the princes make him glad with their lies. 4 They are all like bakers, they are like a smoldering oven; they are like a baker who does not stoke the fire until the kneaded dough is ready for baking. 5 At the celebration of their king, his princes become inflamed with wine; they conspire with evildoers.
  • Hos 9:15 : 15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal, I hate them there. On account of their evil deeds, I will drive them out of my land. I will no longer love them; all their rulers are rebels.
  • Mic 3:1-3 : 1 God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders I said,“Listen, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the nation of Israel! You ought to know what is just, 2 yet you hate what is good, and love what is evil. You flay my people’s skin and rip the flesh from their bones. 3 You devour my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and crush their bones. You chop them up like flesh in a pot– like meat in a kettle.
  • Mic 3:11 : 11 Her leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, her priests proclaim rulings for profit, and her prophets read omens for pay. Yet they claim to trust the LORD and say,“The LORD is among us. Disaster will not overtake us!”