Bible Strands
Ezekiel 22:29
The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Ezekiel addresses Jerusalem and the land of Judah during a period of systemic corruption. The indictment follows a charge against false prophets and precedes God’s search for an intercessor to stand in the gap.
The words — The Hebrew verbs עָשְׁקוּ ('A.she.ku) and גָּזְלוּ (ga.ze.lu) literally mean “they have oppressed” and “they have robbed,” describing active plundering. These terms root the nation’s actions in structural injustice rather than isolated transgressions.
The thread — This pattern of exploiting the poor and the foreign resident appears in Ezekiel 22:7 and is explicitly forbidden in Exodus 22:21 and Exodus 23:9. The repeated legal standard establishes protection of the marginalized as a non-negotiable covenant requirement.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that societal collapse begins with the legal and economic abuse of the vulnerable. It requires readers to measure justice by how the poor and the foreign resident are treated under their own laws.
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
The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 22:7 Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.
- Exodus 23:9 Do not oppress a foreign resident, since you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 22:21 You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
- Leviticus 19:33 When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him.
- Psalms 94:6 They kill the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless.
- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
- Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?
- Isaiah 10:2 to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.
- Amos 3:10 “For they know not how to do right,” declares the LORD. “They store up violence and destruction in their citadels.”
- Isaiah 59:3 For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.