In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the Lord GOD.
Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, You exact usury, everyone of his brother. I held a great assembly against them.
Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They don't judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.
For you have forgotten the God of your yeshu`ah, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings.
Yes, the dogs are greedy, they can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can't understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.
A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping [and] the petitions of the children of Yisra'el; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God.
For from the least of them even to the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the Kohen everyone deals falsely.
has given forth on interest, and has taken increase; shall he then live? he shall not live: he has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be on him.
he who has not given forth on interest, neither has taken any increase, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man,
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore bear you also your lewdness and your prostitution.
Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, even my people Yisra'el; and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no more henceforth bereave them of children.
*Woe to you, scribes and Perushim, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
*Woe to you, scribes and Perushim, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.
The Parush stood and prayed to himself like this: 'God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
Zakkai stood and said to the Lord, *Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.*
But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don't even eat with such a person.
You shall not wrest justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.