The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery. Yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.
Parallel translations
- KJV The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
- BSB The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.
- NKJV The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger.
- NASB The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery, and they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the stranger without justice.
- NLT Even common people oppress the poor, rob the needy, and deprive foreigners of justice.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The common people, too, practice oppression and robbery, troubling the poor and wronging the foreigner. Corruption reaches from leaders down to ordinary citizens.
Overview
The indictment now includes the people of the land, who join in exploiting the poor, needy, and foreigner. No class is innocent; sin has spread throughout the whole society. The verse underscores that widespread injustice, not only the failures of leaders, brings the nation under judgment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ezek 22:7In you have they treated father and mother with contempt. Among you they have oppressed the foreigner. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow.
- Exod 23:9“You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
- Isa 5:7For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
- Ps 94:6They kill the widow and the alien, and murder the fatherless.
- Jer 5:31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?
- Exod 22:21“You shall not wrong an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
- Lev 19:33“‘If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
- Amos 3:10“Indeed they don’t know to do right,” says Yahweh, “Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces.”
- Isa 10:2to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
- Jer 5:26–28For among my people are found wicked men. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.
- Matt 25:43I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
- Mic 2:2They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
- Ezek 18:12has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination,
- Isa 59:3–7For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
- Mic 3:3who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron.
- Jer 6:13“For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.
- Jas 5:4Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 22:29 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.