Extortion
“Plunder/robbery; greedy overreacher”
Summary
Extortion in Scripture refers to gaining property or money through force, oppression, or abuse of position. Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees for filling their lives with extortion, while Paul listed extortioners among those excluded from God's kingdom.
☩Biblical Condemnation
Jesus included extortion in his fierce denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees: 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess' (Matt 23:25; cf. Luke 11:39). The Greek word harpage means 'plunder' or 'robbery'—they who claimed to teach God's law openly violated it through their methods of acquiring wealth. Isaiah had predicted the end of 'the extortioner' as a sign of the Messianic age (Isa 16:4).
☩Kingdom Exclusion
Paul places extortioners in the most serious category of sinners—those excluded from God's kingdom: 'Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters... nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God' (1 Cor 6:9-10; cf. 5:10-11). The Greek pleonektēs (literally 'one who has more') indicates greedy overreaching—taking more than one's due through oppression. The Pharisee's self-congratulation that he was 'not an extortioner' (Luke 18:11) illustrates how those guilty of subtler forms of greed condemned its cruder manifestations.
