Oppression

Not Oppressing Others

Exo_22:21; Exo_23:9; Lev_25:17; Deu_24:14; Pro_22:22; Zec_7:9-10.

The Oppressed

Psa_9:9; Psa_103:6; Psa_146:5-7.

The Servant Of The LORD Being Oppressed

Isa_53:1-11.

Those That Have Not Oppressed Others

Isa_33:15-16; Eze_18:5-9.

Those That Oppress Israel

Isa_49:14-26; Jer_30:16-20.

Those That Oppress The Poor

Job_20:1-19; Pro_14:31; Pro_22:16; Pro_22:22-23; Pro_28:3.

Who Is An Oppressor

Pro_28:16.

Who Shall Be Far From Oppression

Isa_54:5-14.

OPPRESSION.—The word does not occur in the Gospels or in connexion with the activity of Jesus except in the verbal form in Act 10:38 (‘Jesus of Nazareth … went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed [καταδυναστευομένους] of the devil’). In ‘breaking the rod of the oppressor,’ Jesus delivered men not only from sin, but from sorrow and sickness (Luk 4:18, Mat 11:4 f.), from the yoke of legalism (Luk 11:46), the tyranny of worldly circumstance (Luk 12:4-7), the fear of death (Act 2:15), etc. Oppression of guilt weighing upon the sinner’s soul was a condition which never failed specially to elicit ‘Christ’s sympathy and pity (Mat 11:28-30 according to the interpretation that commends itself to the present writer). The sense of this oppression could not exist without an earnest desire to be rid of the burden, and it was this desire that was a sign of a tendency towards a higher life.

It was the oppression of sin that Christ came to take away, and not the yoke of the Roman government which proved so galling to the Jewish nation after their glorious past. It was partly the mistake about the object of His mission that stirred up against Christ the opposition which is so marked a feature in the Gospels. See Opposition.

C. H. Prichard.

o-presh´un: Used in the King James Version to translate a variety of Hebrew words, all of which, however, agree in the general sense of wrong done by violence to others. There are a few cases where the reference is to the oppression of Israel by foreigners, as by their Egyptian masters (Exo 3:9; Deu 26:7), or by Syria (2Ki 13:4), or by an unmentioned nation (Isa 30:20 King James Version, margin). In all these cases the Hebrew original is להץ, laḥac. But in the vast number of cases the reference is to social oppression of one kind or another within Israel’s own body. It is frequently theme of psalmist and prophet and wise man. The poor and weak must have suffered greatly at the hands of the stronger and more fortunate. The word laḥac, various forms of the root עשׁק, ‛āshaḳ, and other words are used by the writers as they express their sorrow and indignation over the wrongs of their afflicted brethren. In his own sorrow, Job remembers the suffering of the oppressed (Job 35:9; Job 36:15); it is a frequent subject of song in the Psalms (Psa 12:5; Psa 42:9; Psa 43:2; Psa 44:24; Psa 55:3; Psa 119:134); the preacher observes and reflects upon its prevalence (Ecc 4:1; Ecc 5:8; Ecc 7:7 the King James Version); the prophets Amos (Amo 3:9), Isaiah (Isa 5:7; Isa 59:13), Jeremiah (Jer 6:6; Jer 22:17) and Ezekiel (Eze 22:7, Eze 22:29) thundered against it. It was exercised toward strangers and also toward the Israelites themselves, and was never wholly overcome. In Jas 2:6, “oppress” is the rendering of καταδυναστεύω, katadunasteúō, “to exercise harsh control over one,” “to use one’s power against one.”