Bible Strands
Ezekiel 22:12
In 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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord God speaks through Ezekiel to Jerusalem, cataloging its systemic corruption immediately after detailing its sexual violations.
The words — שֹׁ֥חַד (Sho.chad) translates to "bribe" and נֶ֧שֶׁךְ (Ne.shekh) to "interest," denoting the financial mechanisms that enable the city's violence.
The thread — The connection between bribery, bloodshed, and divine abandonment runs through Deuteronomy 27:25, Micah 7:2, and Ezekiel 23:35.
Why it lands — The text asserts that economic extortion and murder are direct consequences of forgetting God, requiring readers to trace societal decay back to spiritual neglect.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 23:35 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have forgotten Me and have cast Me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your indecency and prostitution.’”
- Deuteronomy 27:25 ‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- Micah 7:2 The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
- Leviticus 25:35 Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you.
- Deuteronomy 16:19 Do 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.
- Deuteronomy 23:19 Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan.
- Psalms 15:5 who lends his money without interest and refuses a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.
- Psalms 106:21 They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,
- Jeremiah 2:32 Does a maiden forget her jewelry or a bride her wedding sash? Yet My people have forgotten Me for days without number.
- Ezekiel 18:8 He does not engage in usury or take excess interest, but he withholds his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between men.