if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt;
Parallel Translations
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if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt;
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If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
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if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt;
Cross-references (30)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 7:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 22:21-24 “You shall not wrong an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. “You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
- Deuteronomy 8:19 It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish.
- Jeremiah 13:10 This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.
- Zechariah 7:9-12 “Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. Don’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.’ But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear. Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law, and the words which Yahweh of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of Armies.
- Deuteronomy 11:28 and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
- Deuteronomy 6:14-15 You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God, lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.
- Jeremiah 2:34 Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You didn’t find them breaking in, but it is because of all these things.
- Deuteronomy 24:17 You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge;
- Deuteronomy 27:19 ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
- Psalms 82:3-4 “Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”
- Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
- Jeremiah 19:4 Because they have forsaken me, and have defiled this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods that they didn’t know, they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents,
- Jeremiah 22:3-4 Yahweh 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, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place. For if you do this thing indeed, then kings sitting on David’s throne will enter in by the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses, he, his servants, and his people.
- Malachi 3:5 I 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.
- Matthew 23:35-37 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
- James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
- 2 Kings 21:6 He made his son to pass through the fire, practiced sorcery, used enchantments, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards. He did much evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger.
- 2 Kings 24:4 and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahweh would not pardon.
- Job 31:13-22 “If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me, what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him? Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb? “If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb); if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece; if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate, then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.
- Psalms 106:38 They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood.
- Jeremiah 2:30 “I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
- Jeremiah 7:5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;
- Jeremiah 22:15-17 “Should you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn’t your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; so it was well, then. Wasn’t this to know me?” says Yahweh. But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”
- Jeremiah 26:15 Only know for certain that, if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city, and on its inhabitants; for in truth Yahweh has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”
- Jeremiah 26:23 and they fetched Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who killed him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.
- Lamentations 4:13 It is because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her.
- Ezekiel 18:6 and has not eaten on the mountains, hasn’t lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hasn’t defiled his neighbor’s wife, hasn’t come near a woman in her impurity,
- Ezekiel 22:3-6 You shall say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “A city that sheds blood within herself, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile her! You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and are defiled in your idols which you have made! You have caused your days to draw near, and have come even to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries. Those who are near, and those who are far from you, will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult. “ ‘ “Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.
- Matthew 27:4 saying, “I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? You see to it.”
- Matthew 27:25 All the people answered, “May his blood be on us, and on our children!”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (9 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Then he adds, if ye will not oppress the…
Then he adds, if ye will not oppress the stranger and the orphan and the widow This also belonged to the judges: but God no doubt shews here generally, that injustice greatly prevailed among the people, as he condemns the cruelty and perfidy of the judges themselves.
As to strangers and orphans and widows, they are often mentioned; for strangers as well as orphans and widows were almost destitute of protection, and were subject to many wrongs, as though they were exposed as a prey. Hence, whenever a right government is referred to, God mentions strangers and orphans and widows; for it might hence be easily understood of what kind was the public administration of justice; for when others obtain their right, it is no matter of wonder, since they have advocates to defend their cause, and they have also the aid of friends. Thus every one who defends his own cause, obtains at least some portion of his right. But when strangers and orphans and widows are not unjustly dealt with, it is an evidence of real integrity; for we may hence conclude, that there is no respect of persons among the judges. But as this subject has been handled elsewhere, I only touch on it lightly here.
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And if ye will not shed, he says, innocent blood in this place Here the Prophet accuses the judges of a more heinous crime, and calls them murderers. They had, however, no doubt some plausible pretences for shedding the blood of the innocent. But the Prophet, speaking here in the name of God and by the dictates of his Spirit, overlooks all these as altogether vain, though the judges might have thought them sufficient excuses. By saying, in this place, he shews how foolish was their confidence in boasting of God’s worship, sacrifices, and Temple, while yet they had polluted the Temple with their cruel murders.
He then passes to the first table of the law, If ye will not walk after foreign gods to your evil By stating a part for the whole, he condemns every kind of impiety: for what is it to walk after alien gods but to depart from the pure and legitimate worship of the true God and to corrupt it with superstitions? We see then what the Prophet means: he recalls the Jews to the duty of observing the law, that they might thereby give a veritable evidence of their repentance: “Prove, “he says, “that you have repented from the heart.” He shews how they were to prove this, even by observing the law of God. And, as I have said, he refers to the first Table by stating a part for the whole. As to the second Table, he mentions some particulars which were intended to shew that they violated justice and equity, and also that cruelty and perfidiousness, frauds and rapines, prevailed greatly among them.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 7:6 [If] ye oppress not the stranger, the…
Jer 7:6 [If] ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
Ver. 6. If ye oppress not the stranger, &c.] Turtures amat Deus, non vultures. See on Isa 1:23.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Here they are cautioned against three sins that this…
Here they are cautioned against three sins that this people were generally addicted to, oppression, blood, and idolatry; and he instanceth in the worst of oppressions, viz. of such as God hath more especially taken into his immediate protection, because these are most void of help, and most obnoxious to injuries; the
stranger, Exo 22:21, the
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fatherless, and widow, Jer 7:22-24; see them all three together, Deu 10:18; 27:19; see on Isa 10:1,2; and where God speaks of right administering of justice, he usually makes mention of these three, to prove the integrity and impartiality of justice; and though this may more properly respect the princes and great ones, yet I conceive here the prophet doth not so restrain it.
Shed not innocent blood, either by murder or unrighteous sentence; being one of those sins in special mentioned for which God expresseth his high displeasure, and will send the Chaldeans upon them, 2Ki 24:4.
In this place; either in this city in special, or the whole land in general; see Jer 7:3; and there he would show what a foolish thing it is that they should boast of their security in this place, and yet shed blood, which pollutes every place, Num 35:31, &c.
Neither walk after other gods; abstain from your idolatrous courses and depart not from my pure and uncorrupted worship, unto your superstitious and hypocritical service; and he adds to
your hurt, or your own hurt, to show that they will be the only sufferers by it, not God, Jer 7:19. God is neither benefited nor damaged by any thing that we can do, Job 35:6-8.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and…
If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,.... Who have none to help them, and who ought to have mercy and compassion shown them, as well as justice done them; and should not be injured by private men in their persons and properties, and much less oppressed in courts of judicature by those who should be the patrons and defenders of them:
and shed not innocent blood in this place: in the temple, where the sanhedrim, or great court of judicature, sat; for this does not so much respect the commission of murder by private persons, as the condemnation of innocent men to death by the judges, which is all one as shedding their blood; and by which actions they defiled that temple they cried up, and put their trust in; to shed innocent blood in any place, Kimchi observes, is an evil; but to shed it in this place, in the temple, was a greater evil, because this was the place of the Shechinah, or where the divine Majesty dwelt:
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neither walk after other gods to your hurt; the gods of e people, as the Targum; "for this", as the Arabic version renders it, "is pernicious to you"; idolatry was more hurtful to themselves than to God; and therefore it is dissuaded from by an argument taken from their own interest.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Oppress not - Here they are cautioned against three…
Oppress not - Here they are cautioned against three sins, that this people were generally addicted to, oppression, blood, and idolatry; and instances in the worst of oppressions, of such as God hath more especially taken into his immediate protection.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain this place--this city and land (Jer 7:7).
this place--this city and land (Jer 7:7).
to your hurt--so Jer 7:19; "to the confusion or their own faces" (Jer 13:10; Pro 8:36).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless,…
6. if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow] The foreigner, temporarily resident, as having no legal status, specially needed commendation to the kindness of those around him. Harshness to such was strongly denounced in the “Book of the Covenant” (Exodus 21-23, e.g. Jer_22:21, Jer_23:9) and Deut. (e.g. Deu_24:17).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.—Grouped together,…
(6) The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.—Grouped together, as in Deu_14:29; Deu_24:19-21, as the three great representatives of the poor and helpless, standing most in need therefore of man’s justice and of the divine protection.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; specially commended…
The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; specially commended to the care of the Israelites. (Exo_22:21, 22 a passage belonging to one of the most evidently primitive portions of the Pentateuch; Deu_24:17, Deu_24:19, 21 27:19; comp. Isa_1:17, 23 10:2 Eze_22:7) In plus; i.e. specially in Jerusalem, but not altogether excluding the rest of the kingdom (see vers. 3, 7).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.