Verses about justice and mercy

With what shall I come before YHWH, and bow myself before the Elohim on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will YHWH be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriads of torrents of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul? He has announced to you, human being, what is good; and what does YHWH seek from you but to do justice, and to love loyal love, and to walk humbly with your Elohim?

I hate, I reject your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even if you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals I will not look at. Take away from me the noise of your songs, and the melody of your harps I will not hear. But let justice roll on like the waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

For what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? says YHWH. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and of the fat of fattened animals; and in the blood of bulls and of lambs and of male goats I do not delight. When you come to appear before my face, who required this from your hand, the trampling of my courts? Do not keep bringing a false offering; incense is an abomination to me; new moon and Sabbath, the calling of a convocation I cannot bear wickedness with a solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed times my soul hates; they have become a load on me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your palms, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you multiply prayer, I am not listening; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; stop doing evil. Learn to do good; seek justice; set right the oppressor; judge the case of the orphan; plead the cause of the widow.

For I desire loyal love and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of Elohim more than burnt offerings.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you tithe the mint and the dill and the cumin, and you have left aside the weightier things of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without leaving aside those.

And the word of YHWH came to Zechariah, saying, “Thus says YHWH Tsevaot, saying: Judge with judgment of truth, and practice loyal love and mercy each with his brother; and the widow and the orphan, the resident alien and the afflicted, do not exploit; and evil against his brother, each one, do not plan in your heart.”

For YHWH your Elohim, he is Elohim of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and fearsome El, who does not show favoritism and does not take a bribe. He does justice for the orphan and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving him bread and a cloak. So you shall love the resident alien, for you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.

You shall not mistreat a resident alien or oppress him, for you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you do afflict him —for if he does cry out to me, I will surely hear his cry— and my anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will become widows and your sons orphans.

And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not finish reaping the edge of your field, and the gleanings of your harvest you shall not gather. And your vineyard you shall not strip bare, and the fallen grapes of your vineyard you shall not gather; for the poor and for the resident alien you shall leave them. I am YHWH your Elohim.

If there is among you a needy one, one of your brothers, in one of your gates in your land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or close your hand against your brother, the needy one. But you shall freely open your hand to him and freely lend him enough for his need, whatever he lacks. Guard yourself so that there is not a wicked word in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” and your eye is evil toward your brother, the needy one, and you do not give him anything, and he cries out against you to YHWH, and it becomes sin in you. You shall freely give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because on account of this thing YHWH your Elohim will bless you in all your work and in every undertaking of your hand. For the needy one will never cease from the midst of the land; therefore I am commanding you, saying, “You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your poor, and to your needy in your land.”

Whoever oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but whoever shows favor to the needy honors him.

Whoever shows favor to the poor lends to YHWH, and his good deed he will repay him.

who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives bread to the hungry. YHWH sets free the prisoners; YHWH opens the eyes of the blind; YHWH makes straight those who are bent down; YHWH loves the righteous; YHWH keeps the resident aliens; the orphan and the widow he sustains, but the way of the wicked he makes crooked.

Religion pure and undefiled before God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Then the King will say to those at his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I tell you, as much as you did it to one of these least brothers of mine, you did it to me.’

Is this not the fast that I choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, and to set free the crushed, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the wandering afflicted home; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will sprout quickly; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of YHWH will gather you. Then you will call, and YHWH will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove from your midst the yoke, the pointing of the finger and the speaking of wickedness,

Hear this, you who pant after the needy, and seek to bring to an end the poor of the land, saying, “When will the new moon be over, so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, so that we may open the stores of wheat, to make small the ephah and make great the shekel, and to falsify scales of deceit, to buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and the refuse of the wheat we will sell?” YHWH has sworn by the pride of Jacob: I will never forget any of their deeds.

Open your mouth for the mute, for the cause of all the sons of desolation. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the afflicted and the needy.

“How long will you judge unjustly, and lift the face of the wicked? Selah. Judge the poor and the orphan; do justice to the afflicted and the destitute. Bring to safety the poor and the needy; from the hand of the wicked deliver them.

YHWH said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; for I know their sufferings. And I have come down to rescue them from the hand of Egypt and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

Thus says YHWH: Do justice and righteousness, and rescue the one who is robbed from the hand of the oppressor; and the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow do not wrong, do not treat with violence; and innocent blood do not shed in this place.

Woe to those who decree decrees of wickedness, and to the writers who write suffering, to turn aside the poor from judgment, and to rob the afflicted of my people of justice, so that widows become their spoil, and that they may plunder the orphans!

Come now, you rich, weep, wailing aloud over your miseries that are coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. Look, the wages of the workers who mowed your fields, withheld by you, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Tsevaot.

And Jesus replied and said, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among bandits, who also stripped him and laid blows on him and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite also, coming to the place and seeing him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, traveling, came to him; and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. And he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and putting him on his own animal, he brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three seems to you to have become a neighbor to the one who fell among the bandits?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go, and you do likewise.”

Happy are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

For this reason the kingdom of heaven has become like to a man, a king, who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he began to settle them, one debtor was brought to him who owed ten thousand talents. And since he did not have the means to repay, the master ordered him to be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the slave fell down and was bowing down before him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you everything.’ And the master of that slave had compassion and released him and forgave him the loan. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him, he was choking him, saying, ‘Pay back whatever you owe!’ So his fellow slave fell down and was begging him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you.’ But he was not willing, but went and threw him into prison until he should repay what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were very grieved, and they went and reported to their master all that had happened. Then his master summoned him and says to him, ‘Wicked slave! All that debt I forgave you, because you begged me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I also had mercy on you?’ And his master, angered, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed. So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if you do not forgive each his brother from your hearts.”

Whoever shuts his ear to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and will not be answered.

So speak and so act as those who are about to be judged by the law of freedom. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

Who is an El like you, forgiving iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, for he delights in loyal love. He will again have mercy on us; he will subdue our iniquities; and you will cast into the depths of the sea all their sins.