By some counts, there are over 2000 verses in the Bible that deal with the subject of poverty and social justice. While I doubt I will ever get to listing all 2000, I have decided to start  this page, where I will keep a list.

I have spent most of the last year collecting a list of these verses – now I just have to transcribe them all from my many post-its, notes and diverse scraps of paper. If you have any favorites, just put the chapter and verse in the comments and I will add them to this page.

Leviticus

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰ Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God. -Leviticus 19:9-10 (NIV)

‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. -Leviticus 19:15 (NIV)

When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. ³⁴ The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. -Leviticus 19:33 (NIV)

Deuteronomy

If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. – Deuteronomy 15:7 (NIV)

Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. – Deuteronomy 15:10 (NIV)

Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. ⁶ But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. ⁷ Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. ⁸ So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. ⁹ He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; - Deuteronomy 26:5-9 (NIV)

When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. - Deuteronomy 26:12 (NIV)

Psalms

But you, O God, do see trouble and grief;
you consider it to take it in hand.
The victim commits himself to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless. – Psalms 10:14 (NIV)

I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted
And justice for the poor. - Psalms 140:12 (NIV)

Proverbs

He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker,
but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. – Proverbs 14:31 (NIV)

He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD,
and he will reward him for what he has done.- Proverbs 19:17

A generous man will himself be blessed,
for he shares his food with the poor. – Proverbs 22:9 (NIV)

The righteous care about justice for the poor,
but the wicked have no such concern. – Proverbs 29:7 (NIV)

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute. – Proverbs 31:8 (NIV)

Matthew

Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. – Matthew 5:42 (NIV)

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ³But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” – Matthew 6:2-4 (NIV)

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” – Matthew 6:24 (NIV)

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

²¹Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”- Matthew 19:20-21 (NIV)

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

³⁴“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

⁴⁴“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

⁴⁶“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” – Matthew 25:31-46 (NIV)

Luke

John [the Baptizer] answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Luke 3:11 (NIV)

He [Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. ¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, ²¹and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” -Luke 4:16-21 (NIV)

Looking at his disciples, he [Jesus] said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh. – Luke 6:20-21 (NIV)

Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. – Luke 12:33 (NIV)

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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Note:This post is part of our Online Social Justice Bible Study (click the link to see all the entries so far).

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; (Isaiah 61:1-2)

The Messiah will:

• Bring good news to the oppressed
• Bind the brokenhearted
• Proclaim liberty and release to those in bondage
• Announce Jubilee (release from debt)
• Announce the vengeance of God
• comfort those who mourn

Perhaps you are more used to seeing this passage in another book of the Bible. That is because Jesus read from this passage when he stood up in that synagogue in Nazareth and read from the scroll.  Taking this passage in that context, it is interesting to notice that he said nothing about forgiving sins as a big part of his message, yet that is all we seem to have taken away from it. Here is Jesus chance to say what he is all about and, rather than talk about Hell, or abortion, or homosexuality or any of that, he instead decides to talk about things like good news to those left behind. He talks about soothing those with broken hearts. Providing relief to those who are in overwhelming debt. Liberty to those who are in bondage.

I wish we would talk more about that Jesus, instead of the one we have made up to justify what we want Jesus to be about. I do not think the Jesus we like to talk about has any good news for the poor.

Photo Credit: One

Note:This post is part of our Online Social Justice Bible Study (click the link to see all the entries so far).

Through the voice of the prophet Jeremiah, God speaks:

For scoundrels are found among my people;
they take over the goods of others.
Like fowlers they set a trap;
they catch human beings.
Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of treachery;
therefore they have become great and rich,
they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;
they do not judge with justice
the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord,
and shall I not bring retribution
on a nation such as this? ²⁷²⁸²⁹ (Jeremiah 5:26-29)

If any of this sounds familar, perhaps it is because you have recently watched the news: The markets are plummeting and the banks are collapsing left and right. Why? Most analysts are willing to trace it back to predatory lending practices.

When a banker designs a loan repayment plan that takes 50% of a family’s take home pay and then encourages them to do it, they have set a trap; default is not a matter of if, but when.

Who is the target of subprime mortgages? The lower income brackets. The widow whose only asset is the home her husband left her, the young couple trying to get a start in life, the blue collar worker who gets a letter telling him that he qualifies for $10,000 to add on to his house-these are the target of the predatory lender. And the game is rigged from the beginning in favor of the lenders, some of whom are now getting multi-million dollar bonuses as rewards for faithful service (they have grown fat and sleek…)

As the author of Eclesiastes tells us, there is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before. Bankers who prey on the poor are nothing new, and this won’t be the last generation to do it. I guarentee that some of those lenders were upright men and women, who professed to be followers of Jesus, who sat in church on Sunday and sang praises to the God who tells us here that he will punish such things.

Can you think of examples of how the poor are trapped by practices of the wealthy?

Today’s text comes from the prophet Isaiah:

Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey! What will you do on the day of punishment, in the calamity that will come from far away? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth, so as not to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain? For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.²³⁴ (Isaiah 10: 1-3)

If Bob cheats Sam, that is wrong, and it should be fixed. This is the sort of injustice we often think about-someone using their power to take advantage of another. However, in scripture we see the harshest words reserved for systemic injustice: That is, injustice that is impersonal and the result of systems and organizations. Another phrase used by some scholars for this is ‘domination systems’. A biblical example we are all familiar with would be the tax laws of 1st Century Roman Empire (ever wonder why so much hatred was addressed toward tax collectors in the Gospels?). A recent example would be the ‘separate but equal’ laws in the US or Apartheid in South Africa.

God views power as a gift, to be used in the defense of those who are left behind, those who are doing without, those who are vulnerable and oppressed. When that power is used instead to increase the wealth of the wealthy and to create hardship for the poor, the power structure has sided itself against God.

This particular passage is the fourth, and last, woe addressed to Israel, all ending with the phrase-

For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.²³⁴

This is the hand of Judgment, the hand of anger. In short, God is ticked.

In my work with the homeless and very poor, I see this sort of thing all the time. Just one example is the ‘anti-camping’ ordinances many cities have. This is not geared to keeping Joe and Suzie Homemaker from camping out in the park, with the tent, the Coleman lantern and the Igloo cooler. No, this sort of law is passed to keep people from sleeping in public.  This is how it plays out:

Ron is homeless, and cannot get into the shelter. So he sleeps outside, hidden behind a building. As you can imagine, it is not restful sleep, so he is sleepy the next day. He sits on a park bench and dozes off. A police officer writes him a ticket for “camping in the park” (!). He dozed off, for crying out loud…

In any event, Ron goes to court, where he faces a fine, somewhere in the area of $100, which, of course he cannot pay, being homeless. Then he faces court costs of $120, which he also cannot pay. So, he gets sent to Jail for 30 days… for being poor.

This is but one example at a very low level. There are many instances of laws, systems, policies and structures designed to keep the poor in their place while benefiting those who have more resources. Can you think of any?

Just a quick note: Due to unforseen drama, I have to postpone the beginning of the Online Social Justice Bible Study until this Thursday.

Everything is OK, I am just behind.

Thanks for understanding.

By some counts, there are over 2000 verses in the Christian Bible that discuss how we are to deal with the poor and the oppressed. There are so many that some have claimed that it is the largest single theme in the scriptures.

I relayed this to some friends the other day, and they doubted both pieces of information. So, I thought I would investigate.

While I do not intend to tackle all 2000 verses (was that a sigh of relief I heard out there?), I am planning to take many of the major, plain teachings of scripture on the issues that today we would call Social Justice and blog about them, one passage at a time.

The Social Justice Bible Study will go up twice a week, on Tuesdays and on Thursdays, so we can study and digest them together.  This way we (myself included) can consider them together and discuss it, calmly, in the comment box following each post.

NOTE: If you want to be sure you get to see each post in this Bible Study, you may want to sign up to read our blog posts in your email inbox. When we update the blog, you will receive the text of the post in your inbox automatically!

Photo Credit: Josh Self