Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses corrupt rulers who issue oppressive decrees, speaking during a period of systemic judicial abuse that precedes a warning of coming devastation.
The words — הַטּוֹת (ha.Tot) means to turn aside, describing the distortion of legal proceedings, while גְזֹל (g.Zol) means to plunder, detailing the seizure of property from vulnerable groups.
The thread — The condemnation of leaders who exploit the vulnerable runs through Isaiah 1:23, where rulers refuse to defend the fatherless, and Malachi 3:5, where God acts as a swift witness against judicial corruption.
Why it lands — The text demands readers recognize that legal systems which systematically strip protection from the poor and orphans constitute direct rebellion against divine justice.
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
To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
Cross-references
- Malachi 3:5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- Isaiah 3:14 The LORD brings this charge against the elders and leaders of His people: “You have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses.
- Isaiah 1:23 Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.
- Isaiah 5:23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice.
- Isaiah 29:21 those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.
- 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.
- 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 7:6 if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,
- Lamentations 3:35 to deny a man justice before the Most High,
- Amos 2:7 They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name.