Yesaya 1:17

1:17 Learn to do what is right!

Promote justice!

Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! ¹ 

Take up the cause of the orphan!

Defend the rights of the widow! ² 

Mazmur 82:3-4

82:3 Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless! ³ 

Vindicate the oppressed and suffering!

82:4 Rescue the poor and needy!

Deliver them from the power ⁴  of the wicked!

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 

Yeremia 22:3

22:3 The Lord says, “Do what is just and right. Deliver those who have been robbed from those ¹⁰  who oppress them. Do not exploit or mistreat foreigners who live in your land, children who have no fathers, or widows. ¹¹  Do not kill innocent people ¹²  in this land.

Yehezkiel 45:9-12

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, ¹³  declares the sovereign Lord. 45:10 You must use just balances, ¹⁴  a just dry measure (an ephah), ¹⁵  and a just liquid measure (a bath). ¹⁶  45:11 The dry and liquid measures will be the same, the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, ¹⁷  and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure. 45:12 The shekel will be twenty gerahs. Sixty shekels ¹⁸  will be a mina for you.

Daniel 4:27

4:27 Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you. Break away from your sins by doing what is right, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps your prosperity will be prolonged.” ¹⁹ 

Zakharia 7:9

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

[1:17]  ¹ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The translation assumes an emendation of חָמוֹץ (khamots, “oppressor [?]”) to חָמוּץ (khamuts, “oppressed”), a passive participle from II חָמַץ (khamats, “oppress”; HALOT 329 s.v. II חמץ) and takes the verb II אָשַׁר (’ashar) in the sense of “make happy” (the delocutive Piel, meaning “call/pronounce happy,” is metonymic here, referring to actually effecting happiness). The parallelism favors this interpretation, for the next two lines speak of positive actions on behalf of the destitute. The other option is to retain the MT pointing and translate, “set right the oppressor,” but the nuance “set right” is not clearly attested elsewhere for the verb I אשׁר. This verb does appear as a participle in Isa 3:12 and 9:16 with the meaning “to lead or guide.” If it can mean to “lead” or “rebuke/redirect” in this verse, the prophet could be contrasting this appeal for societal reformation (v. 17c) with a command to reorder their personal lives (v. 17a-b). J. A. Motyer (The Prophecy of Isaiah, 47) suggests that these three statements (v. 17a-c) provide “the contrast between the two ends of imperfect society, the oppressor and the needy, the one inflicting and the other suffering the hurt. Isaiah looks for a transformed society wherever it needs transforming.”

[1:17]  ² tn This word refers to a woman who has lost her husband, by death or divorce. The orphan and widow are often mentioned in the OT as epitomizing the helpless and impoverished who have been left without the necessities of life due to the loss of a family provider.

[82:3]  ³ tn The Hebrew noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9). Because they were so vulnerable and were frequently exploited, fatherless children are often mentioned as epitomizing the oppressed (see Pss 10:14; 68:5; 94:6; 146:9; as well as Job 6:27; 22:9; 24:3, 9; 29:12; 31:17, 21).

[82:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “hand.”

[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.”

[22:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from the hand [or power] of.”

[22:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “aliens, orphans, or widows” treating the terms as generic or collective. However, the term “alien” carries faulty connotations and the term “orphan” is not totally appropriate because the Hebrew term does not necessarily mean that both parents have died.

[22:3]  sn These were classes of people who had no one to look out for their rights. The laws of Israel, however, were careful to see that their rights were guarded (cf. Deut 10:18) and that provision was made for meeting their needs (cf. Deut 24:19-21). The Lord promised to protect them (cf. Ps 146:9) and a curse was called down on any who deprived them of justice (cf. Deut 27:19).

[22:3]  ¹² tn Heb “Do not shed innocent blood.”

[22:3]  sn Do not kill innocent people. For an example of one of the last kings who did this see Jer 36:20-23. Manasseh was notorious for having done this and the book of 2 Kgs attributes the ultimate destruction of Judah to this crime and his sin of worshiping false gods (2 Kgs 21:16; 24:4).

[45:9]  ¹³ 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.

[45:10]  ¹⁴ sn Previous legislation regarding this practice may be found in Lev 19:35-36; Deut 25:13-16; Mic 6:10-12.

[45:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “ephah,” which was 1/2 bushel.

[45:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “bath,” a liquid measure, was 5 1/2 gallons.

[45:11]  ¹⁷ sn The homer was about 5 bushels as a dry measure and 55 gallons as a liquid measure.

[45:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, fifteen shekels.”

[4:27]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “if there may be a lengthening to your prosperity.”