“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Stop your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Quit robbing and cheating my people out of their land. Stop expelling them from their homes, says the Sovereign Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Let it suffice you, princes of Israel: remove violence and plunder, and execute justice and righteousness; dispossessing my people, says the Lord Yahweh.
- KJV Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.
- BSB For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Enough, O princes of Israel! Cease your violence and oppression, and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing My people, declares the Lord GOD.’
- NKJV ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Enough, O princes of Israel! Remove violence and plundering, execute justice and righteousness, and stop dispossessing My people,” says the Lord God.
- NASB ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Enough, you princes of Israel; get rid of violence and destruction, and practice justice and righteousness. Revoke your evictions of My people,” declares the Lord God.
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
God commands Israel's princes to abandon violence and plunder and instead practice justice and righteousness.
Overview
The Lord directly confronts the rulers' oppression, demanding they stop dispossessing His people. Justice and righteousness are non-negotiable for those who govern under God. This call echoes the prophets' constant theme and finds its fulfillment in Christ, whose kingdom is established in perfect justice and righteousness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Zech 8:16These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,
- Isa 1:17Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”
- Jer 22:3Yahweh says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence, to the foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place.
- Ezek 44:6You shall tell the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: you house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,
- 1 Pet 4:3For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
- Job 20:19For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.
- Ezek 43:14–16From the bottom on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the width one cubit; and from the lesser ledge to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and the width a cubit.
- Mic 2:9You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my blessing forever.
- Mic 2:1–2Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.
- Neh 5:1–13Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews.
- Luke 3:14Soldiers also asked him, saying, “What about us? What must we do?” He said to them, “Extort from no one by violence, neither accuse anyone wrongfully. Be content with your wages.”
- 1 Cor 6:7–8Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?
- Ps 82:2–5“How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?” Selah.
- Job 24:2–12There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
- Job 22:9You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 45:9 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.