Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, August 27th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Zechariah 7:10

Don't hurt widows and orphans, strangers, or poor people. Don't even think of doing bad things to each other!'"

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Commandments;   Impenitence;   Kindness;   Malice;   Oppression;   Poor;   Rulers;   Widow;   Thompson Chain Reference - Evil;   Invitations-Warnings;   Kindness-Cruelty;   Oppression;   Shun Evil;   Warnings;   The Topic Concordance - Heart;   Israel/jews;   Oppression;   Strangers;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Fatherless;   Poor, the;   Widows;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Zechariah;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Mercy;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Contribution;   Justice;   Orphan;   Widow;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Proselytes;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Mercy, Merciful;   Regem-Melech;   Zechariah, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Widow;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Widows;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Fatherless;   Imagine;   Poor;   Zechariah, Book of;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Duty;   Gentile;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’
Hebrew Names Version
Don't oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.'
King James Version (1611)
And oppresse not the widow, nor the fatherlesse, the stranger, nor the poore, and let none of you imagine euill against his brother in your heart.
King James Version
And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
English Standard Version
do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart."
New American Standard Bible
and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.'
New Century Version
Don't hurt widows and orphans, foreigners or the poor; don't even think of doing evil to somebody else.'
Amplified Bible
and do not oppress or exploit the widow or the fatherless, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise or even imagine evil in your hearts against one another.'
Geneva Bible (1587)
And oppresse not the widowe, nor the fatherles, the stranger nor the poore, & let none of you imagine euil against his brother in your heart.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.'
Legacy Standard Bible
and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the sojourner or the afflicted; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.'
Berean Standard Bible
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.'
Contemporary English Version
Don't mistreat widows or orphans or foreigners or anyone who is poor, and stop making plans to hurt each other."
Complete Jewish Bible
Don't oppress widows, orphans, foreigners or poor people. Don't plot evil against each other.'
Darby Translation
and oppress not the widow and the fatherless, the stranger and the afflicted; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
George Lamsa Translation
And do not oppress the widow nor the orphan, the poor nor the proselyte; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in his heart.
Good News Translation
Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners who live among you, or anyone else in need. And do not plan ways of harming one another.'
Lexham English Bible
You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, and the needy. You must not devise evil in your heart against one another.'
Literal Translation
And do not oppress the widow, or the fatherless, the alien, or the poor. And do not devise evil in your heart, of a man against his brother.
American Standard Version
and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.
Bible in Basic English
Do not be hard on the widow, or the child without a father, on the man from a strange country, or on the poor; let there be no evil thought in your heart against your brother.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Do the wydow, the fatherlesse, the straungers and poore no wrong, and let no man imagine euil against his brother in his heart.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and oppress not the widow, or the fatherless, or the stranger, or the poor; and let not one of you remember in his heart the injury of his brother.
English Revised Version
and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
World English Bible
Don't oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.'
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And nyle ye falsli calenge a widewe, and fadirles, ether modirles, and comelyng, and pore man; and a man thenke not in his herte yuel to his brother.
Update Bible Version
and don't oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the sojourner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.
Webster's Bible Translation
And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
New English Translation
You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow human being.'
New King James Version
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, The alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart Against his brother.'
New Living Translation
Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.
New Life Bible
Do not make it hard for the woman whose husband has died, or the child who has no parents, or the stranger, or the poor. Do not make sinful plans in your hearts against one another.'
New Revised Standard
do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And, the widow and the fatherless, the sojourner and the humbled, do not ye oppress, - and, wickedness between one man and another, do not ye devise in your hearts.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And oppress not the widow, and the fatherless, and the stranger, and the poor: and let not a man devise evil in his heart against his brother.
Revised Standard Version
do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart."
Young's Literal Translation
And widow, and fatherless, Sojourner, and poor, ye do not oppress, And the calamity of one another ye do not devise in your heart.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Do the wyddowe, the fatherlesse, the straunger, and poore no wronge: and let no man ymagen euell agaynst his brother in his hert.

Contextual Overview

8 This is the Lord 's message to Zechariah: 9 "This is what the Lord All-Powerful said: ‘You must do what is right and fair. You must be kind and show mercy to each other. 10 Don't hurt widows and orphans, strangers, or poor people. Don't even think of doing bad things to each other!'" 11 But they refused to listen and refused to do what he wanted. They closed their ears so that they could not hear what God said. 12 They were very stubborn and would not obey the law. The Lord All-Powerful used his Spirit and sent messages to his people through the prophets. But the people would not listen, so the Lord All-Powerful became very angry. 13 So the Lord All-Powerful said, "I called to them, and they did not answer. So now, if they call to me, I will not answer. 14 I will bring the other nations against them like a storm. They didn't know those nations, but the country will be destroyed after those nations pass through. This pleasant country will be destroyed."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

oppress: Exodus 22:21-24, Exodus 23:9, Deuteronomy 24:14-18, Deuteronomy 27:19, Psalms 72:4, Proverbs 22:22, Proverbs 22:23, Proverbs 23:10, Proverbs 23:11, Isaiah 1:16, Isaiah 1:17, Isaiah 1:23, Jeremiah 5:28, Jeremiah 22:15-17, Ezekiel 22:7, Ezekiel 22:12, Ezekiel 22:29, Amos 4:1, Amos 5:11, Amos 5:12, Micah 2:1-3, Micah 3:1-4, Zephaniah 3:1-3, Malachi 3:5, Matthew 23:14, 1 Corinthians 6:10, James 5:4

imagine: Psalms 21:11, Psalms 36:4, Psalms 140:2, Proverbs 3:29, Proverbs 6:18, Jeremiah 11:19, Jeremiah 11:20, Jeremiah 18:18, Micah 2:1, Mark 7:21-23, James 1:14, James 1:15, 1 John 3:15

Reciprocal: Exodus 22:22 - General Deuteronomy 23:16 - thou shalt not Deuteronomy 24:17 - pervert Ezekiel 18:8 - hath executed Ezekiel 18:12 - oppressed Zechariah 8:17 - let James 2:6 - Do

Cross-References

Genesis 6:17
"Understand what I am telling you. I will bring a great flood of water on the earth. I will destroy all living things that live under heaven. Everything on the earth will die.
Genesis 7:4
Seven days from now, I will send much rain on the earth. It will rain for 40 days and 40 nights, and I will wipe everything off the face of the earth. I will destroy everything I made."
Genesis 7:17
Water flooded the earth for 40 days. The water began rising and lifted the boat off the ground.
Genesis 7:20
The water continued to rise above the mountains. The water was more than 20 feet above the highest mountain.
Job 22:16
They were destroyed before it was their time to die. They were washed away by the flood.
Luke 17:27
People were eating, drinking, and getting married even on the day when Noah entered the boat. Then the flood came and killed them all.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor,.... Such as have no husband to provide for them, nor father and mother to care for them, and are in a strange land, where they have no friends or acquaintance, and are poor, and can not help themselves. Laws of this kind were frequently inculcated among the Jews; see Deuteronomy 24:14:

and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart; thoughts of evil are sinful, and forbidden by the law of God, as well as actions, which agrees with our Lord's sense of the law, Matthew 5:22, see Leviticus 19:17.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And oppress not - He had commanded positive acts of love; he now forbids every sort of unlove. “He that oppresseth the poor,” Solomon had said, “reproacheth his Maker. The widow, the orphan, the stranger, the afflicted” Proverbs 24:31, are, throughout the law, the special objects of God’s care. This was the condition which God made by Jeremiah; “If ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger the fatherless and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt, then will I cause you to dwell in this, place” Jeremiah 7:5-7. It was on the breach of the covenant to set their brethren free in the year of release, that God said; “I proclaim a liberty for you to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine, and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth” Jeremiah 34:17.

And let none of you imagine - that is, “devise, as, by Micah, God retorted the evil upon them. They “devised evil on their beds; therefore, behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks” Micah 2:1, Micah 2:3.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 7:10. Evil against his brother in your heart. — Do not indulge an unfavourable opinion of another: do not envy him; do not harbour an unbrotherly feeling towards him.


 
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