Open your mouth, judge righteously, and serve justice to the poor and needy.”
Parallel Translations
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Open your mouth, judge righteously, and serve justice to the poor and needy.”
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Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
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Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (24)
Passages linked to Proverbs 31:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”
- Leviticus 19:15 “ ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness.
- Amos 5:11-12 Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.
- Deuteronomy 1:16 I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him.
- Job 29:15-16 I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him who I didn’t know.
- Jeremiah 22:3 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.
- Proverbs 16:12 It is an abomination for kings to do wrong, for the throne is established by righteousness.
- Isaiah 1:23 Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.
- Jeremiah 5:28 They 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 defend the rights of the needy.
- Daniel 4:27 Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your tranquility.”
- Deuteronomy 16:18-20 You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You 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. You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Job 29:12 Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,
- Psalms 72:1-2 God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son. He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
- Jeremiah 23:5 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
- 2 Samuel 8:15 David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness for all his people.
- Proverbs 20:8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes.
- Isaiah 11:4 but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
- Jeremiah 22:15-16 “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.
- Zechariah 7:9 “Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.
- Revelation 19:11 I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war.
- Psalms 58:1-2 Do you indeed speak righteousness, silent ones? Do you judge blamelessly, you sons of men? No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth.
- Isaiah 32:1-2 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice. A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.
- John 7:24 Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
- Hebrews 1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (5 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 31:9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead…
Pro 31:9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
Ver. 9. Plead the cause of the poor and needy.] These are God’s great care, as appears in many texts. Job comforted himself in this, that he had been "eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, a father to the poor," &c. {Job 29:15-16} Ebedmelech is renowned for pleading the cause of the poor prophet, and so should Pharaoh’s butler have been if he had done it sooner. Master Holt, who was of counsel to Master Pryn, when so unjustly censured in the Star Chamber, but refused, through cowardice, to sign his answer, according to promise, being overawed by the prelates, bewailed his own baseness to his wife and friends; and, soon after falling sick for conceit only of the miscarriage of that cause, he died, never going to the Star Chamber after that bloody sentence. {a}
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{a} New Discoveries of the Prelate’s Tyranny, p. 47, 48.
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.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Open thy mouth, judge righteously,.... Having heard the cause,…
Open thy mouth, judge righteously,.... Having heard the cause, pronounce a righteous sentence; deliver it freely and impartially, with all readiness and boldness, not caring for the censures of wicked and unjust men;
and plead the cause of the poor and needy; who are oppressed by the rich, cannot plead for themselves, nor fee others to plead for them; do thou do it freely and faithfully. Thus as Lemuel's mother cautions him against women and wine, she advises him to do the duties of his office in administering impartial justice to all, and particularly in being the advocate and judge of the indigent and distressed.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9. Plead the cause — Vindicate the right of…
9. Plead the cause — Vindicate the right of the poor and the needy. The language and ideas are very similar to some portions of Psalms 72. Compare Pro_31:2; Pro_31:4, Pro_31:12-14 of that psalm. It is possible that the author was familiar with that beautiful production.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. plead the cause of] Rather, minister judgement to,…
9. plead the cause of] Rather, minister judgement to, R.V. Lit judge.
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.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Plead the cause; rather, minister judgment, or do right;…
Plead the cause; rather, minister judgment, or do right; act in your official capacity so that the effect shall be substantial justice. (comp. Zec_8:16)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.