44 Bible Verses about oppression

Come now, you men of wealth, give yourselves to weeping and crying because of the bitter troubles which are coming to you. Your wealth is unclean and insects have made holes in your clothing. Your gold and your silver are wasted and their waste will be a witness against you, burning into your flesh. You have put by your store in the last days. read more.
See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies. You have been living delicately on earth and have taken your pleasure; you have made your hearts fat for a day of destruction.

These twenty years I have been in your house; I was your servant for fourteen years because of your daughters, and for six years I kept your flock, and ten times was my payment changed.

The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land.

And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions.

See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies.

Now a certain woman, the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, came crying to Elisha and said, Your servant my husband is dead; and to your knowledge he was a worshipper of the Lord; but now, the creditor has come to take my two children as servants in payment of his debt.

And again I saw all the cruel things which are done under the sun; there was the weeping of those who have evil done to them, and they had no comforter: and from the hands of the evil-doers there went out power, but they had no comforter.

Do no wrong to a man from a strange country, and do not be hard on him; for you yourselves were living in a strange country, in the land of Egypt.

Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land.

Do not be hard on a servant who is poor and in need, if he is one of your countrymen or a man from another nation living with you in your land.

And do no wrong, one to another, but let the fear of your God be before you; for I am the Lord your God.

Do not take away the property of the poor man because he is poor, or be cruel to the crushed ones when they come before the judge:

And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.

Give ear to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the hill of Samaria, by whom the poor are kept down, and those in need are crushed; who say to their lords, Get out the wine and give us drink.

But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong, and on violent and cruel acts.

See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies.

They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage.

For the Lord God says, My people went down at first into Egypt, to get a place for themselves there: and the Assyrian put a cruel yoke on them without cause.

For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the cruel behaviour of the Egyptians to them.

And our cry went up to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord's ear was open to the voice of our cry, and his eyes took note of our grief and the crushing weight of our work:

And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of those who violently took their property, and into the hands of their haters all round them, so that they were forced to give way before them.

He who is cruel to the poor for the purpose of increasing his profit, and he who gives to the man of wealth, will only come to be in need.

He who is hard on the poor puts shame on his Maker; but he who has mercy on those who are in need gives him honour.

Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said, For this cause my thoughts are troubling me and driving me on. I have to give ear to arguments which put me to shame, and your answers to me are wind without wisdom. read more.
Have you knowledge of this from early times, when man was placed on the earth, That the pride of the sinner is short, and the joy of the evil-doer but for a minute? Though he is lifted up to the heavens, and his head goes up to the clouds; Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever: those who have seen him say, Where is he? He is gone like a dream, and is not seen again; he goes in flight like a vision of the night. The eye which saw him sees him no longer; and his place has no more knowledge of him. His children are hoping that the poor will be kind to them, and his hands give back his wealth. His bones are full of young strength, but it will go down with him into the dust. Though evil-doing is sweet in his mouth, and he keeps it secretly under his tongue; Though he takes care of it, and does not let it go, but keeps it still in his mouth; His food becomes bitter in his stomach; the poison of snakes is inside him. He takes down wealth as food, and sends it up again; it is forced out of his stomach by God. He takes the poison of snakes into his mouth, the tongue of the snake is the cause of his death. Let him not see the rivers of oil, the streams of honey and milk. He is forced to give back the fruit of his work, and may not take it for food; he has no joy in the profit of his trading. Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;

A man of wealth who is cruel to the poor is like a violent rain causing destruction of food.

I make cries like a bird; I give out sounds of grief like a dove: my eyes are looking up with desire; O Lord, I am crushed, take up my cause.

Make me free from the cruel rule of man; then I will keep your orders.

Why is your face covered, and why do you give no thought to our trouble and our cruel fate?

I have done what is good and right: you will not give me into the hands of those who are working against me.

But Zion said, The Lord has given me up, I have gone from his memory. Will a woman give up the child at her breast, will she be without pity for the fruit of her body? yes, these may, but I will not let you go out of my memory. See, your name is marked on my hands; your walls are ever before me. read more.
Your builders are coming quickly; your haters and those who made you waste will go out of you. Let your eyes be lifted up round about, and see: they are all coming together to you. By my life, says the Lord, truly you will put them all on you as an ornament, and be clothed with them like a bride. For though the waste places of your land have been given to destruction, now you will not be wide enough for your people, and those who made you waste will be far away. The children to whom you gave birth in other lands will say in your ears, The place is not wide enough for me: make room for me to have a resting-place. Then you will say in your heart, Who has given me all these children? when my children had been taken from me, and I was no longer able to have others, who took care of these? when I was by myself, where then were these? This is the word of the Lord God: See, I will make a sign with my hand to the nations, and put up my flag for the peoples; and they will take up your sons on their beasts, and your daughters on their backs. And kings will take care of you, and queens will give you their milk: they will go down on their faces before you, kissing the dust of your feet; and you will be certain that I am the Lord, and that those who put their hope in me will not be shamed. Will the goods of war be taken from the strong man, or the prisoners of the cruel one be let go? But the Lord says, Even the prisoners of the strong will be taken from him, and the cruel made to let go his goods: for I will take up your cause against your haters, and I will keep your children safe. And the flesh of your attackers will be taken by themselves for food; and they will take their blood for drink, as if it was sweet wine: and all men will see that I the Lord am your saviour, even he who takes up your cause, the Strong One of Jacob.

For this cause, all those who take you for their food will themselves become your food; and all your attackers, every one of them, will be taken prisoners; and those who send destruction on you will come to destruction; and all those who take away your goods by force will undergo the same themselves. For I will make you healthy again and I will make you well from your wounds, says the Lord; because they have given you the name of an outlaw, saying, It is Zion cared for by no man. The Lord has said, See, I am changing the fate of the tents of Jacob, and I will have pity on his houses; the town will be put up on its hill, and the great houses will be living-places again. read more.
And from them will go out praise and the sound of laughing: and I will make them great in number, and they will not become less; and I will give them glory, and they will not be small. And their children will be as they were in the old days, and the meeting of the people will have its place before me, and I will send punishment on all who are cruel to them.

He whose ways are true, and whose words are upright; he who gives no thought to the profits of false acts, whose hands have not taken rewards, who will have no part in putting men to death, and whose eyes are shut against evil; He will have a place on high: he will be safely shut in by the high rocks: his bread will be given to him; his waters will be certain.

But if a man is upright, living rightly and doing righteousness, And has not taken flesh with the blood for food, or given worship to the images of the children of Israel; if he has not had connection with his neighbour's wife, or come near to a woman at the time when she is unclean; And has done no wrong to any, but has given back to the debtor what is his, and has taken no one's goods by force, and has given food to him who was in need of it, and clothing to him who was without it; read more.
And has not given his money out at interest or taken great profits, and, turning his hand from evil-doing, has kept faith between man and man, And has been guided by my rules and has kept my laws and done them: he is upright, life will certainly be his, says the Lord.

Their saviour is strong; the Lord of armies is his name: he will certainly take up their cause, so that he may give rest to the earth and trouble to the people of Babylon.

He will keep their souls free from evil designs and violent attacks; and their blood will be of value in his eyes.

Because of the crushing of the poor and the weeping of those in need, now will I come to his help, says the Lord; I will give him the salvation which he is desiring.

May he be a judge of the poor among the people, may he give salvation to the children of those who are in need; by him let the violent be crushed.

Happy is the man who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things in them; who keeps faith for ever: Who gives their rights to those who are crushed down; and gives food to those who are in need of it: the Lord makes the prisoners free;

The Lord gives decisions in righteousness for all who are in trouble.

The Lord will be a high tower for those who are crushed down, a high tower in times of trouble;

Who would have had faith in the word which has come to our ears, and to whom had the arm of the Lord been unveiled? For his growth was like that of a delicate plant before him, and like a root out of a dry place: he had no grace of form, to give us pleasure; Men made sport of him, turning away from him; he was a man of sorrows, marked by disease; and like one from whom men's faces are turned away, he was looked down on, and we put no value on him. read more.
But it was our pain he took, and our diseases were put on him: while to us he seemed as one diseased, on whom God's punishment had come. But it was for our sins he was wounded, and for our evil doings he was crushed: he took the punishment by which we have peace, and by his wounds we are made well. We all went wandering like sheep; going every one of us after his desire; and the Lord put on him the punishment of us all. Men were cruel to him, but he was gentle and quiet; as a lamb taken to its death, and as a sheep before those who take her wool makes no sound, so he said not a word. They took away from him help and right, and who gave a thought to his fate? for he was cut off from the land of the living: he came to his death for the sin of my people. And they put his body into the earth with sinners, and his last resting-place was with the evil-doers, though he had done no wrong, and no deceit was in his mouth. And the Lord was pleased ... see a seed, long life, ... will do well in his hand. ... ... made clear his righteousness before men ... had taken their sins on himself.

For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of armies is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is he who takes up your cause; he will be named the God of all the earth. For the Lord has made you come back to him, like a wife who has been sent away in grief of spirit; for one may not give up the wife of one's early days. For a short time I gave you up; but with great mercies I will take you back again. read more.
In overflowing wrath my face was veiled from you for a minute, but I will have pity on you for ever, says the Lord who takes up your cause. For this is like the days of Noah to me: for as I took an oath that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so have I taken an oath that I will not again be angry with you, or say bitter words to you. For the mountains may be taken away, and the hills be moved out of their places, but my love will not be taken from you, or my agreement of peace broken, says the Lord, who has had mercy on you. O troubled one, storm-crushed, uncomforted! see, your stones will be framed in fair colours, and your bases will be sapphires. I will make your towers of rubies, and your doors of carbuncles, and the wall round you will be of all sorts of beautiful stones. And all your builders will be made wise by the Lord; and great will be the peace of your children. All your rights will be made certain to you: have no fear of evil, and destruction will not come near you.

The prince who has no sense is a cruel ruler; but he who has no desire to get profit for himself will have long life.

Let us take care for fear that their numbers may become even greater, and if there is a war, they may be joined with those who are against us, and make an attack on us, and go up out of the land. So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses. But the more cruel they were to them, the more their number increased, till all the land was full of them. And the children of Israel were hated by the Egyptians. read more.
And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to do: And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions. And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew women who gave help at the time of childbirth (the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah), When you are looking after the Hebrew women in childbirth, if it is a son you are to put him to death; but if it is a daughter, she may go on living. But the women had the fear of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt said, but let the male children go on living. And the king of Egypt sent for the women, and said to them, Why have you done this, and let the male children go on living? And they said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are strong, and the birth takes place before we come to them. And the blessing of God was on these women: and the people were increased in number and became very strong. And because the women who took care of the Hebrew mothers had the fear of God, he gave them families. And Pharaoh gave orders to all his people, saying, Every son who comes to birth is to be put into the river, but every daughter may go on living.

But giving them the answer put forward by the young men, saying, My father made your yoke hard, but I will make it harder; my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give it with snakes.

And Abram said, The woman is in your power; do with her whatever seems good to you. And Sarai was cruel to her, so that she went running away from her.

The Lord will be a high tower for those who are crushed down, a high tower in times of trouble;

And I will be the judge, said God, of that nation which made them servants: and after that, they will come out and give me worship in this place.

But you have put the poor man to shame. Are not the men of wealth rulers over you? do they not take you by force before their judges?