Imamat 25:17

25:17 No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, ¹  but you must fear your God, because I am the Lord your God.

Yesaya 56:1

The Lord Invites Outsiders to Enter

56:1 This is what the Lord says,

“Promote ²  justice! Do what is right!

For I am ready to deliver you;

I am ready to vindicate you openly. ³ 

Yeremia 5:1

Judah is Justly Deserving of Coming Judgment

5:1 The Lord said, ⁴ 

“Go up and down ⁵  through the streets of Jerusalem. ⁶ 

Look around and see for yourselves.

Search through its public squares.

See if any of you can find a single person

who deals honestly and tries to be truthful. ⁷ 

If you can, ⁸  then I will not punish this city. ⁹ 

Yehezkiel 33:14

33:14 Suppose I say to the wicked, ‘You must certainly die,’ but he turns from his sin and does what is just and right.

Yehezkiel 45:9

45:9 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction, and do what is just and right. Put an end to your evictions of my people, ¹⁰  declares the sovereign Lord.

Hosea 12:7

The Lord Refutes Israel’s False Claim of Innocence

12:7 The businessmen love to cheat; ¹¹ 

they use dishonest scales. ¹² 

Amos 5:24

5:24 Justice must flow like torrents of water,

righteous actions ¹³  like a stream that never dries up.

Mikha 6:8

6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good,

and what the Lord really wants from you: ¹⁴ 

He wants you to ¹⁵  promote ¹⁶  justice, to be faithful, ¹⁷ 

and to live obediently before ¹⁸  your God.

Zakharia 7:9

7:9 “The Lord who rules over all said, ‘Exercise true judgment and show brotherhood and compassion to each other.

[25:17]  ¹ tn Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”

[56:1]  ² tn Heb “guard”; KJV “Keep”; NAB “Observe”; NASB “Preserve”; NIV, NRSV “Maintain.”

[56:1]  ³ tn Heb “for near is my deliverance to enter, and my vindication [or “righteousness”] to be revealed.”

[5:1]  ⁴ tn These words are not in the text, but since the words at the end are obviously those of the Lord, they are supplied in the translation here to mark the shift in speaker from 4:29-31 where Jeremiah is the obvious speaker.

[5:1]  ⁵ tn It is not clear who is being addressed here. The verbs are plural so they are not addressed to Jeremiah per se. Since the passage is talking about the people of Jerusalem, it is unlikely they are addressed here except perhaps rhetorically. Some have suggested that the heavenly court is being addressed here as in Job 1:6-8; 2:1-3. It is clear from Jer 23:18, 22; Amos 3:7 that the prophets had access to this heavenly counsel through visions (cf. 1 Kgs 22:19-23), so Jeremiah could have been privy to this speech through that means. Though these are the most likely addressee, it is too presumptuous to supply such an explicit addressee without clearer indication in the text. The translation will just have to run the risk of the probable erroneous assumption by most English readers that the addressee is Jeremiah.

[5:1]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “who does justice and seeks faithfulness.”

[5:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “squares. If you can find…if there is one person…then I will…”

[5:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “forgive [or pardon] it.”

[45:9]  ¹⁰ sn Evictions of the less fortunate by the powerful are described in 1 Kgs 21:1-16; Jer 22:1-5, 13-17; Ezek 22:25.

[12:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the merchant…loves to cheat.” The Hebrew has singular forms (noun and verb) which are used generically to refer to all Israelite merchants and traders in general. The singular noun II כְּנַעַן (kÿna’an, “a merchant; a trader”; BDB 488 s.v. II כְּנַעַן) is used in a generic sense to refer to the merchant class of Israel as a whole (e.g., Ezek 16:29; 17:4; Zeph 1:11).

[12:7]  ¹² tn Heb “The merchant – in his hand are scales of deceit – loves to cheat.” The present translation rearranges the Hebrew line division to produce a smoother English rendering.

[5:24]  ¹³ tn Traditionally, “righteousness.”

[6:8]  ¹⁴ sn What the Lord really wants from you. Now the prophet switches roles and answers the hypothetical worshiper’s question. He makes it clear that the Lord desires proper attitudes more than ritual and sacrifice.

[6:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”

[6:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”

[6:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”

[6:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”