Bible Strands
Isaiah 10:1
Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah pronounces a declaration of judgment against corrupt legal authorities who pervert the administration of justice.
The words — ה֥וֹי (Ho) carries the literal sense of "woe to," signaling impending divine judgment, while חִקְקֵי־אָוֶן (chi.khei-'A.ven) literally denotes "decrees of wickedness."
The thread — This theme of corrupt judicial decrees echoes in Psalms 94:20, Micah 3:1, and finds a parallel warning in Luke 11:52.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that legal systems which institutionalize oppression directly oppose divine justice and incur judgment.
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
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
Cross-references
- Luke 11:52 Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
- Micah 3:1 Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?
- Psalms 94:20 Can a corrupt throne be Your ally—one devising mischief by decree?
- Matthew 23:23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
- Habakkuk 2:6 Will not all of these take up a taunt against him, speaking with mockery and derision: ‘Woe to him who amasses what is not his and makes himself rich with many loans! How long will this go on?’
- Luke 11:42 Woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithes of mint, rue, and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.
- John 9:22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already determined that anyone who confessed Jesus as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.
- John 19:6 As soon as the chief priests and officers saw Him, they shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” “You take Him and crucify Him,” Pilate replied, “for I find no basis for a charge against Him.”
- Isaiah 5:8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.
- Isaiah 5:18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,