If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.
Parallel translations
- WEB “‘If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
- KJV And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
- NKJV And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not oppress one another.
- NASB Furthermore, if you make a sale to your friend, or buy from your friend’s hand, you shall not wrong one another.
- NLT “When you make an agreement with your neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not take advantage of each other.
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
In buying and selling, Israelites were not to wrong one another. Economic dealings were to be honest and fair.
Overview
God required integrity in all transactions, forbidding exploitation in trade between neighbors. This grounded everyday commerce in justice and love for one's neighbor. It reflects God's character of righteousness, which the gospel works out in transformed, honest relationships.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 32
- Lev 19:13You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
- Lev 25:17Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
- Amos 5:11–12Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
- Ezek 22:12–13In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.
- Ezek 22:7Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.
- Jas 5:1–5Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.
- 1 Sam 12:3–4Here I am. Bear witness against me before the LORD and before His anointed: Whose ox or donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated or oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe and closed my eyes? Tell me, and I will restore it to you.”
- Isa 58:6Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke?
- Mic 2:2–3They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.
- Mic 6:10–12Can I forget any longer, O house of the wicked, the treasures of wickedness and the short ephah, which is accursed?
- Amos 8:4–7Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
- Deut 16:19–20Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.
- 2 Chr 16:10Asa was angry with the seer and became so enraged over this matter that he put the man in prison. And at the same time Asa oppressed some of the people.
- Neh 9:36–37So here we are today as slaves in the land You gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit and goodness—here we are as slaves!
- Isa 3:12–15Youths oppress My people, and women rule over them. O My people, your guides mislead you; they turn you from your paths.
- Prov 14:31Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him.
- Ps 10:18to vindicate the fatherless and oppressed, that the men of the earth may strike terror no more.
- Prov 22:16Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich will surely lead to poverty.
- Prov 28:16A leader who lacks judgment is also a great oppressor, but he who hates dishonest profit will prolong his days.
- Mic 7:3Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.
- Jer 22:17“But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except your own dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, on practicing extortion and oppression.”
- Prov 28:3A destitute leader who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no food.
- Prov 21:13Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too shall cry out and receive no answer.
- 1 Cor 6:8Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, even against your own brothers!
- Prov 28:8He who increases his wealth by interest and usury lays it up for one who is kind to the poor.
- Isa 5:7For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
- Eccl 5:8If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.
- Isa 33:15He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—
- Luke 3:14Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” “Do not take money by force or false accusation,” he said. “Be content with your wages.”
- Isa 1:17Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”
- Judg 4:3Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had harshly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
- Job 20:19–20For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor; he has seized houses he did not build.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 25:14 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
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