Isaiah 1:23

The rulers are rebellious, love bribes, and ignore the orphan and widow. Corrupt leadership oppresses the vulnerable instead of defending them.

Cross-references · 27

• Mic 7:3Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together.
• Exod 23:8“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
• Zech 7:10Don’t oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’
• Luke 18:2–5saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God, and didn’t respect man.
• Acts 4:5–11In the morning, their rulers, elders, and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem.
• Luke 19:46saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!”
• Isa 10:1–2Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;
• Mal 3:5I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
• Jer 5:28–29They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t judge the right of the needy.
• Isa 3:14Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
• Isa 33:15He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil —
• Mark 11:17He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers!”
• 2 Chr 36:14Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted Yahweh’s house which he had made holy in Jerusalem.
• Prov 29:24Whoever is an accomplice of a thief is an enemy of his own soul. He takes an oath, but dares not testify.
• Matt 21:13He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”
• Deut 16:19You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.
• Hos 7:3–5They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
• Mic 3:1–3I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?
• Hos 9:15“All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.
• Hos 4:18Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.
• Jer 5:5I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
• Prov 17:23A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, to pervert the ways of justice.
• Ezek 22:6–12“‘“Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.
• Jer 22:17But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”
• 2 Chr 24:17–21Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came, and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them.
• Dan 9:5–6we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances;
• Mic 3:11Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

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