88 passages · Humanity
A new king fears the growing Israelite population and sets taskmasters over them. They are forced into brutal labor building store cities, yet they keep multiplying.
Pharaoh stops supplying straw but demands the same brick quota, calling the Israelites lazy. The people scatter to gather stubble and the Israelite foremen are beaten for falling short.
God begins the ordinances with rules for Hebrew servants, who go free in the seventh year. Special protections cover daughters sold as servants, including care and freedom if their rights are denied.
Israel must not oppress foreigners, widows, or orphans, since God hears their cry. Loans to the poor carry no interest and a cloak taken as pledge must be returned by sunset.
Farmers are not to harvest to the edges of their fields or strip their vineyards bare. They are to leave gleanings for the poor and the foreigner.
This is a run of commands about honesty and justice: do not steal, lie, swear falsely, oppress workers, favor the rich or poor, slander, or hold hatred. The passage ends with 'love your neighbor as yourself.'
The Israelites are to honor the elderly, treat foreigners as native-born and love them as themselves, and use honest weights and measures. The LORD reminds them he brought them out of Egypt.
An Israelite who becomes destitute is to be supported like a resident foreigner and not charged interest or profit. God grounds this in having brought Israel out of Egypt.
Five sisters whose father died without sons ask Moses for property among their father's relatives. God agrees they are right and sets out the order of inheritance when a man has no son.
Moses asks what God requires: to fear Him, walk in His ways, love and serve Him. He says God owns everything, cares for the fatherless, widow, and foreigner, and Israel should love foreigners too. He urges them to circumcise their hearts.
Israel is to set aside a tenth of its produce each year and eat it at God's chosen place, or exchange it for money if too far. Every third year the tithe is stored in the towns for the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows.
Every seventh year creditors must cancel loans made to fellow Israelites, though foreigners can still be charged. God promises that obedience will leave no poor among them.
Moses commands Israel not to harden their hearts against the poor as the release year nears, but to lend freely and give generously. There will always be poor in the land, so they are to open their hands.
Moses gives rules against returning a fugitive slave, shrine prostitution, and charging interest to a fellow Israelite. He also says vows must be kept and neighbors' fields may be eaten from but not carried away.
A lender must not enter a borrower's house to take security but wait outside for him to bring it. If the pledge is a poor man's cloak, it must be returned by sunset so he can sleep in it.
Poor hired workers, whether Israelite or foreign, must be paid daily before sunset. Each person is punished only for his own sin, and justice must not be denied to foreigners, orphans, or widows, remembering Israel's slavery in Egypt.
Farmers must leave forgotten sheaves, leftover olives, and leftover grapes for foreigners, orphans, and widows. Israel is again reminded that it was once enslaved in Egypt.
Ruth, with Naomi's permission, goes to glean behind the harvesters and happens on the field of Boaz, a relative of Elimelech. Boaz arrives, greets his workers, and asks his foreman who she is.
The song describes God overturning human situations: the mighty are broken, the hungry are fed, the barren bear children, and the poor are raised to honor. He rules life, death, poverty and wealth.
Nathan describes a rich man who takes a poor man's only lamb to feed a guest. David is angry and declares the man deserves to die and must repay fourfold.
Jezebel tells Ahab to cheer up and forges letters in his name. Elders arrange a false trial with two witnesses, Naboth is stoned to death, and Ahab takes the vineyard.
Many families complain of famine, mortgaged fields, and high taxes. They are being forced to sell their children into slavery to fellow Jews, and they cannot redeem them.
Angered, Nehemiah rebukes the nobles for charging interest and enslaving their own people. He calls an assembly, urges them to restore land and stop the interest, and they promise to comply under oath.
Job asks why God does not set times for judgment. He describes the powerful stealing land and livestock from the poor, who go hungry and unsheltered while God charges no one with wrongdoing.
Job recalls being honored by young and old at the city gate. He says he earned this by rescuing the poor, the widow, the blind and the stranger.
Job says he never ignored a servant's complaint, since God made both master and servant in the womb and will hold him to account.
Job says he has always shared food, clothing and help with the needy and never abused the fatherless. If he had, he says, he would deserve to lose his arm, since he fears God's judgment.
The LORD is called a refuge for the oppressed who trust Him. The psalmist urges the people to sing praise to God in Zion and tell the nations of His deeds, since God does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
The psalmist asks why the LORD seems distant in times of trouble while the wicked chase the poor. He asks that the wicked be caught in their own schemes.
The wicked man's speech is full of cursing and lies, and he lurks like a lion to catch the helpless. He tells himself that God has forgotten and does not see.