⁷ The rich rule over the poor. The borrower is servant to the lender.

⁶ But you have dishonored the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?

²³ The poor plead for mercy, But the rich answer harshly.

⁴ Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.

²⁵ But because he couldn't pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

⁶ That we may buy the poor for silver, And the needy for a pair of shoes, And sell the sweepings with the wheat?'"

⁴ Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy, And cause the poor of the land to fail,

¹¹ Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, And take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of hewn stone, But you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, But you shall not drink their wine.

¹² For I know how many your offenses, And how great are your sins-- You who afflict the just, Who take a bribe, And who turn aside the needy in the courts.

¹ Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their lords, "Bring, and let us drink."

⁶ Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; Because they have sold the righteous for silver, And the needy for a pair of shoes;

² It shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest to him.

²² Don't exploit the poor, because he is poor; And don't crush the needy in court;

¹⁶ Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, Both come to poverty.

³¹ He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, But he who is kind to the needy honors him.

⁴ There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute [on] our fields and our vineyards.

⁵ Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children: and, behold, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage [already]: neither is it in our power to help it; for other men have our fields and our vineyards.

¹ Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant did fear Yahweh: and the creditor is come to take to him my two children to be bondservants.