44 Bible Verses about oppression

Come now, you rich people! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming on you. Your wealth is ruined: your clothes are moth-eaten; your silver and gold are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You stored up treasure in the last days! read more.
Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who reaped your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. You have lived luxuriously on the land and have indulged yourselves. You have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.

For 20 years I have worked in your household—14 years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you have changed my wages 10 times!

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and unlawfully exploited the foreign resident.

and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.

Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who reaped your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

One of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, has died. You know that your servant feared the Lord. Now the creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves.”

Again, I observed all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who are oppressed; they have no one to comfort them. Power is with those who oppress them; they have no one to comfort them.

“You must not exploit a foreign resident or oppress him, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

You must not oppress a foreign resident; you yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

“Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether one of your brothers or one of the foreigners residing within a town in your land.

You are not to cheat one another, but fear your God, for I am Yahweh your God.

Don’t rob a poor man because he is poor,
and don’t crush the oppressed at the gate,

“I will come to you in judgment, and I will be ready to witness against sorcerers and adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress the widow and the fatherless, and cheat the wage earner; and against those who deny justice to the foreigner. They do not fear Me,” says the Lord of Hosts.

Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan
who are on the hill of Samaria,
women who oppress the poor
and crush the needy,
who say to their husbands,
“Bring us something to drink.”

But you have eyes and a heart for nothing
except your own dishonest profit,
shedding innocent blood
and committing extortion and oppression.

Look! The pay that you withheld from the workers who reaped your fields cries out, and the outcry of the harvesters has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

They covet fields and seize them;
they also take houses.
They deprive a man of his home,
a person of his inheritance.

For this is what the Lord God says:
“At first My people went down to Egypt to live there,
then Assyria oppressed them without cause.

The Israelites’ cry for help has come to Me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

So we called out to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our cry and saw our misery, hardship, and oppression.

The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold them to the enemies around them, and they could no longer resist their enemies.

Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself,
and giving to the rich—both lead only to poverty.

The one who oppresses the poor person insults his Maker,
but one who is kind to the needy honors Him.

Then Zophar the Naamathite replied: This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer, because I am upset! I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my understanding makes me reply. read more.
Don't you know that ever since antiquity, from [the time] man was placed on earth, the joy of the wicked has been brief and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment? Though his arrogance reaches heaven, and his head touches the clouds, he will vanish forever like his own dung. Those who know him will ask, "Where is he?" He will fly away like a dream and never be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night. The eye that saw him will see [him] no more, and his household will no longer see him. His children will beg from the poor, for his own hands must give back his wealth. His bones may be full of youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the grave. Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue, though he cherishes it and will not let it go but keeps it in his mouth, yet the food in his stomach turns into cobras' venom inside him. He swallows wealth but must vomit it up; God will force it from his stomach. He will suck the poison of cobras; a viper's fangs will kill him. He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream. He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming [it]; he doesn't enjoy the profits from his trading. For he oppressed and abandoned the poor; he seized a house he did not build.

A destitute leader who oppresses the poor
is like a driving rain that leaves no food.

I chirp like a swallow or a crane;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes grow weak looking upward.
Lord, I am oppressed; support me.

Redeem me from human oppression,
and I will keep Your precepts.

from the wicked who treat me violently,
my deadly enemies who surround me.

Why do You hide Yourself
and forget our affliction and oppression?

ע AyinI have done what is just and right;
do not leave me to my oppressors.

Zion says, "The Lord has abandoned me; The Lord has forgotten me!" "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you. Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me. read more.
Your builders hurry; those who destroy and devastate you will leave you. Look up, and look around. They all gather together; they come to you. As I live"- the Lord's declaration- "you will wear all your children as jewelry, and put them on as a bride does. For your waste and desolate places and your land marked by ruins- will now be indeed too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children that you have been deprived of will yet say in your hearing: This place is too small for me; make room for me so that I may settle. Then you will say within yourself: Who fathered these for me? I was deprived of my children and barren, exiled and wandering- but who brought them up? See, I was left by myself- but these, where did they come from?" This is what the Lord God says: Look, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the ground, and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who put their hope in Me will not be put to shame. Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of the righteous be delivered? For this is what the Lord says: "Even the captives of a mighty man will be taken, and the prey of a tyrant will be delivered; I will contend with the one who contends with you, and I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they will be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. Then all flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

Nevertheless, all who devoured you will be devoured, and all your adversaries-all of them- will go off into exile. Your despoilers will become spoil, and all who plunder you will be plundered. But I will bring you health and will heal you of your wounds- [this is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the Lord's declaration- for they call you The Outcast, that Zion no one cares about. This is what the Lord says: I will certainly restore the fortunes of Jacob's tents and show compassion on his dwellings. Every city will be rebuilt on its mound; every citadel will stand on its proper site. read more.
Thanksgiving will come out of them, a sound of celebration. I will multiply them, and they will not decrease; I will honor them, and they will not be insignificant. His children will be as in past days; his congregation will be established in My presence. I will punish all his oppressors.

The one who lives righteously and speaks rightly, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears from listening to murderous plots and shuts his eyes to avoid endorsing evil- he will dwell on the heights; his refuge will be the rocky fortresses, his food provided, his water assured.

"Now suppose a man is righteous and does what is just and right: He does not eat at the mountain [shrines] or raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor's wife or come near a woman during her menstrual impurity. He doesn't oppress anyone but returns his collateral to the debtor. He does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing. read more.
He doesn't lend at interest or for profit but keeps his hand from wrongdoing and carries out true justice between men. He follows My statutes and keeps My ordinances, acting faithfully. Such a person is righteous; he will certainly live." [This is] the declaration of the Lord God .

Their Redeemer is strong;
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.
He will fervently plead their case
so that He might bring rest to the earth
but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.

He will redeem them from oppression and violence,
for their lives are precious in his sight.

“Because of the oppression of the afflicted
and the groaning of the poor,
I will now rise up,” says the Lord.
“I will put the one who longs for it in a safe place.”

May he vindicate the afflicted among the people,
help the poor,
and crush the oppressor.

Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. He remains faithful forever, executing justice for the exploited and giving food to the hungry. The Lord frees prisoners.

The Lord executes acts of righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a refuge in times of trouble.

Who has believed what we have heard? And who has the arm of the Lord been revealed to? He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or splendor that we should look at Him, no appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like one people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn't value Him. read more.
Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not open His mouth. He was taken away because of oppression and judgment; and who considered His fate? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was struck because of My people's rebellion. They made His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully. Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him, and He made Him sick. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see [His] seed, He will prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will succeed by His hand. He will see [it] out of His anguish, and He will be satisfied with His knowledge. My righteous servant will justify many, and He will carry their iniquities.

For your husband is your Maker- His name is Yahweh of Hosts- and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth. For the Lord has called you, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, a wife of one's youth when she is rejected," says your God. "I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with great compassion. read more.
In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on you with everlasting love," says the Lord your Redeemer. "For this is like the days of Noah to Me: when I swore that the waters of Noah would never flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you. Though the mountains move and the hills shake, My love will not be removed from you and My covenant of peace will not be shaken," says your compassionate Lord. "Poor [Jerusalem], storm-tossed, and not comforted, I will set your stones in black mortar, and lay your foundations in sapphires. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling stones, and all your walls of precious stones. Then all your children will be taught by the Lord, their prosperity will be great, and you will be established on [a foundation of] righteousness. You will be far from oppression, you will certainly not be afraid; you will be far from terror, it will certainly not come near you.

A leader who lacks understanding
is very oppressive,
but one who hates dishonest profit
prolongs his life.

Let us deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply [further], and if war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country." So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh. But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. read more.
They worked the Israelites ruthlessly and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar, and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it's a daughter, she may live." The Hebrew midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this and let the boys live?" The midwives said to Pharaoh, "The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife can get to them." So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous. Since the midwives feared God, He gave them families. Pharaoh then commanded all his people: "You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live."

and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.”

Abram replied to Sarai, “Here, your slave is in your hands; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai mistreated her so much that she ran away from her.

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a refuge in times of trouble.

I will judge the nation
that they will serve as slaves, God said.
After this, they will come out
and worship Me in this place.

Yet you dishonored that poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?