The biblical case for equal justice

³⁶ And behold, even your relative Elizabeth herself has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called infertile is now in her sixth month.

³⁰ So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, ³¹ because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”

³¹ “For has anyone said to God, ‘I have endured punishment; I will not offend anymore; ³² Teach me what I do not see; If I have done wrong, I will not do it again’? ³³ Shall God repay on your terms, because you have rejected His? For you must choose, and not I; Therefore declare what you know.

¹⁵ For this is what the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, says: “I dwell in a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.

¹⁰ For who has shown contempt for the day of small things? But these seven will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel—they are the eyes of the Lord roaming throughout the earth.”

⁴⁰ Therefore, see that the thing spoken of in the Prophets does not come upon you: ⁴¹ ‘Look, you scoffers, and be astonished, and perish; For I am accomplishing a work in your days, A work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.’”

⁵ I certainly will require your lifeblood; from every animal I will require it. And from every person, from every man as his brother I will require the life of a person. ⁶ Whoever sheds human blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made mankind.

²² “Now if people struggle with each other and strike a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, but there is no injury, the guilty person shall certainly be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. ²³ But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, ²⁴ eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

⁸ But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, ⁹ realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and worldly, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,

² Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. ³ For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; ⁴ for it is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

¹¹ Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of mankind among them are fully given to do evil. ¹² Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and may lengthen his life, still I know that it will go well for those who fear God, who fear Him openly.

⁹ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰ Then He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground. ¹¹ Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth.”

¹¹ For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we are to love one another; ¹² not as Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And for what reason did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.

⁹ For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.

²⁷ ‘Now if anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and becomes guilty, ²⁸ if his sin which he has committed is made known to him, then he shall bring as his offering a goat, a female without defect, for his sin which he has committed.

⁹ Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin”? ¹⁰ Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the Lord.

¹⁵ ‘You shall not do injustice in judgment; you shall not show partiality to the poor nor give preference to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. ¹⁶ You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people; and you are not to jeopardize the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. ¹⁷ ‘You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may certainly rebuke your neighbor, but you are not to incur sin because of him.

¹⁸ “You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your towns which the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹ You shall not distort justice, you shall not show partiality; and you shall not accept a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous. ²⁰ Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁷ You are not to show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You are not to be afraid of any person, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too difficult for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’

¹⁵ ‘You shall not do injustice in judgment; you shall not show partiality to the poor nor give preference to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

¹⁵ One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. ¹⁶ Why is there money in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, When he has no sense?

²⁰ Can a throne of destruction be allied with You, One which devises mischief by decree? ²¹ They band themselves together against the life of the righteous And condemn the innocent to death. ²² But the Lord has been my refuge, And my God the rock of my refuge. ²³ He has brought back their injustice upon them, And He will destroy them in their evil; The Lord our God will destroy them.

²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and follow His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. ⁴ For whoever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. ⁵ Who is the one who overcomes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

¹⁰ So you too, when you do all the things which were commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’”

²⁴ Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have violated the command of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice. ²⁵ Now then, please pardon my sin and return with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”

⁴ You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

³⁷ So you shall keep all My statutes and all My ordinances, and do them; I am the Lord.’”

¹¹ “For this commandment which I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far away. ¹² It is not in heaven, that you could say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us and get it for us, and proclaim it to us, so that we may follow it?’ ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you could say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us and get it for us and proclaim it to us, so that we may follow it?’ ¹⁴ On the contrary, the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may follow it.

¹⁶ So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and informed him; then Ahab went to meet Elijah. ¹⁷ When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is this you, the cause of disaster to Israel?” ¹⁸ He said, “I have not brought disaster to Israel, but you and your father’s house have, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and you have followed the Baals.

⁸ Open your mouth for the people who cannot speak, For the rights of all the unfortunate. ⁹ Open your mouth, judge righteously, And defend the rights of the poor and needy.

⁸ Open your mouth for the people who cannot speak, For the rights of all the unfortunate. ⁹ Open your mouth, judge righteously, And defend the rights of the poor and needy.

¹¹ Rescue those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to the slaughter, Oh hold them back! ¹² If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He who weighs the hearts not consider it? And does He who watches over your soul not know it? And will He not repay a person according to his work?

³ This is what the Lord says: “Do justice and righteousness, and save one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. And do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

⁵ Better is open rebuke Than love that is concealed. ⁶ Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

¹⁰ To whom shall I speak and give warning, That they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord has become for them a rebuke; They take no delight in it.

¹⁶ Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷ So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present.

¹ ‘Now if a person sins after he hears a public order to testify when he is a witness, whether he has seen or otherwise known, if he does not tell it, then he will bear his punishment.

⁷ “Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them a warning from Me. ⁸ When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will certainly die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked about his way, that wicked person shall die for his wrongdoing, but I will require his blood from your hand. ⁹ But if you on your part warn a wicked person to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die for his wrongdoing, but you have saved your life.

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” ¹⁴ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” ¹⁶ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.

²⁰ “Furthermore, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to Me and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. Were your obscene practices a trivial matter? ²¹ You slaughtered My children and offered them to idols by making them pass through the fire. ²² And besides all your abominations and obscene practices, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and squirming in your blood.

³⁸ So I will judge you as women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

²⁶ and I pronounced them unclean because of their gifts, in that they made all their firstborn pass through the fire so that I might make them desolate, in order that they might know that I am the Lord.”’

¹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “You shall also say to the sons of Israel: ‘Anyone from the sons of Israel or from the strangers residing in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech, shall certainly be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones. ³ I will also set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his children to Molech, so as to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy name. ⁴ If the people of the land, however, should ever disregard that man when he gives any of his children to Molech, so as not to put him to death, ⁵ then I Myself will set My face against that man and against his family, and I will cut off from among their people both him and all those who play the prostitute with him, by playing the prostitute with Molech.

¹⁰ He also defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, so that no one would make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech.

⁹ “This is what the Lord of armies has said: ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; ¹¹ But they refused to pay attention, and turned a stubborn shoulder and plugged their ears from hearing.

²¹ “I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your festive assemblies. ²² Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fattened oxen. ²³ Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. ²⁴ But let justice roll out like waters, And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

¹⁵ So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you offer many prayers, I will not be listening. Your hands are covered with blood.

⁴ Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ ⁵ For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a person and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor follow other gods to your own ruin, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

³ To do righteousness and justice Is preferred by the Lord more than sacrifice.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. ²² Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

²⁴ “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts on them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.