Ulangan 23:15-16

Purity in the Treatment of the Nonprivileged

23:15 You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he has run away to you. ¹  23:16 Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages ²  he prefers; you must not oppress him.

Ulangan 24:14

24:14 You must not oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites ³  or from the resident foreigners who are living in your land and villages. ⁴ 

Yeremia 21:12

21:12 O royal family descended from David. ⁵ 

The Lord says:

‘See to it that people each day ⁶  are judged fairly. ⁷ 

Deliver those who have been robbed from those ⁸  who oppress them.

Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you.

It will burn like a fire that cannot be put out

because of the evil that you have done. ⁹ 

[23:15]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text includes “from his master,” but this would be redundant in English style.

[23:16]  ² tn Heb “gates.”

[24:14]  ³ tn Heb “your brothers,” but not limited only to actual siblings; cf. NASB “your (+ own NAB) countrymen.”

[24:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “who are in your land in your gates.” The word “living” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “house of David.” This is essentially equivalent to the royal court in v. 11.

[21:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “to the morning” = “morning by morning” or “each morning.” See Isa 33:2 and Amos 4:4 for parallel usage.

[21:12]  ⁷ sn The kings of Israel and Judah were responsible for justice. See Pss 122:5. The king himself was the final court of appeals judging from the incident of David with the wise woman of Tekoa (2 Sam 14), Solomon and the two prostitutes (1 Kgs 3:16-28), and Absalom’s attempts to win the hearts of the people of Israel by interfering with due process (2 Sam 15:2-4). How the system was designed to operate may be seen from 2 Chr 19:4-11.

[21:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the hand [or power] of.”

[21:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “Lest my wrath go out like fire and burn with no one to put it out because of the evil of your deeds.”