Reference: Poverty
Hastings
POVERTY
1. In the OT.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And God said all these words: I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house. read more. You are to have no other gods but me. You are not to make an image or picture of anything in heaven or on the earth or in the waters under the earth: You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters; And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws. You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord's name on his lips for an evil purpose will be judged a sinner by the Lord Keep in memory the Sabbath and let it be a holy day. On six days do all your work: But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on that day you are to do no work, you or your son or your daughter, your man-servant or your woman-servant, your cattle or the man from a strange country who is living among you: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and everything in them, and he took his rest on the seventh day: for this reason the Lord has given his blessing to the seventh day and made it holy. Give honour to your father and to your mother, so that your life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Do not put anyone to death without cause. Do not be false to the married relation. Do not take the property of another. Do not give false witness against your neighbour. Let not your desire be turned to your neighbour's house, or his wife or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is his.
If you let any of the poor among my people have the use of your money, do not be a hard creditor to him, and do not take interest.
Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.
Let them not go on living in your land, or they will make you do evil against me: for if you give worship to their gods, it will certainly be a cause of sin to you.
And if he has not money enough for a lamb, then let him give, for his offering to the Lord, two doves or two young pigeons; one for a sin-offering and one for a burned offering.
But if he has not enough money for two doves or two young pigeons, then let him give, for the sin he has done, the tenth part of an ephah of the best meal, for a sin-offering; let him put no oil on it, and no perfume, for it is a sin-offering.
And when you get in the grain from your land, do not let all the grain be cut from the edges of the field, or take up what has been dropped on the earth after the getting in of the grain. And do not take all the grapes from your vine-garden, or the fruit dropped on the earth; let the poor man, and the man from another country, have these: I am the Lord your God. read more. Do not take anyone's property or be false in act or word to another. And do not take an oath in my name falsely, putting shame on the name of your God: I am the Lord. Do not be cruel to your neighbour or take what is his; do not keep back a servant's payment from him all night till the morning. Do not put a curse on those who have no hearing, or put a cause of falling in the way of the blind, but keep the fear of your God before you: I am the Lord. Do no wrong in your judging: do not give thought to the position of the poor, or honour to the position of the great; but be a judge to your neighbour in righteousness.
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, strong in power and greatly to be feared, who has no respect for any man's position and takes no rewards: Judging uprightly in the cause of the widow and of the child who has no father, and giving food and clothing in his mercy to the man from a strange country. read more. So be kind to the man from a strange country who is living among you, for you yourselves were living in a strange country in the land of Egypt.
And you will be glad before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your men-servants and your women-servants, and the Levite who is with you in your house, because he has no part or heritage among you.
And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk and birds of that sort;
At the end of every three years take a tenth part of all your increase for that year, and put it in store inside your walls:
At the end of every three years take a tenth part of all your increase for that year, and put it in store inside your walls: And the Levite, because he has no part or heritage in the land, and the man from a strange country, and the child who has no father, and the widow, who are living among you, will come and take food and have enough; and so the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.
For there will never be a time when there are no poor in the land; and so I give orders to you, Let your hand be open to your countrymen, to those who are poor and in need in your land. If one of your countrymen, a Hebrew man or woman, becomes your servant for a price and does work for you six years, in the seventh year let him go free. read more. And when you make him free, do not let him go away with nothing in his hands: But give him freely from your flock and from your grain and your wine: in the measure of the wealth which the Lord your God has given you, you are to give to him. And keep in mind that you yourself were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: so I give you this order today.
And the judges will have the question looked into with care: and if the witness is seen to be false and to have made a false statement against his brother,
Do not take interest from an Israelite on anything, money or food or any other goods, which you let him have From men of other nations you may take interest, but not from an Israelite: so that the blessing of the Lord your God may be on everything to which you put your hand, in the land which you are about to take as your heritage.
If you let your brother have the use of anything which is yours, do not go into his house and take anything of his as a sign of his debt; But keep outside till he comes out and gives it to you. read more. If he is a poor man, do not keep his property all night; But be certain to give it back to him when the sun goes down, so that he may have his clothing for sleeping in, and will give you his blessing: and this will be put to your account as righteousness before the Lord your God. Do not be hard on a servant who is poor and in need, if he is one of your countrymen or a man from another nation living with you in your land. Give him his payment day by day, not keeping it back over night; for he is poor and his living is dependent on it; and if his cry against you comes to the ears of the Lord, it will be judged as sin in you.
Give him his payment day by day, not keeping it back over night; for he is poor and his living is dependent on it; and if his cry against you comes to the ears of the Lord, it will be judged as sin in you. Fathers are not to be put to death for their children or children for their fathers: every man is to be put to death for the sin which he himself has done. read more. Be upright in judging the cause of the man from a strange country and of him who has no father; do not take a widow's clothing on account of a debt: But keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: for this is why I give you orders to do this. When you get in the grain from your field, if some of the grain has been dropped by chance in the field, do not go back and get it, but let it be for the man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the widow: so that the blessing of the Lord your God may be on all the work of your hands. When you are shaking the fruit from your olive-trees, do not go over the branches a second time: let some be for the man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the widow. When you are pulling the grapes from your vines, do not take up those which have been dropped; let them be for the man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the widow.
When you are pulling the grapes from your vines, do not take up those which have been dropped; let them be for the man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the widow.
When you have taken out a tenth from the tenth of all your produce in the third year, which is the year when this has to be done, give it to the Levite, and the man from a strange land, and the child without a father, and the widow, so that they may have food in your towns and be full; And say before the Lord your God, I have taken all the holy things out of my house and have given them to the Levite, and the man from a strange land, and him who has no father, and the widow, as you have given me orders: I have kept in mind all your orders, in nothing have I gone against them: read more. No part of these things has been used for food in a time of weeping, or put away when I was unclean, or given for the dead: I have given ear to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all you have given me orders to do. So, looking down from your holy place in heaven, send your blessing on your people Israel and on the land which you have given us, as you said in your oath to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
And the Lord sent Nathan to David. And Nathan came to him and said, There were two men in the same town: one a man of great wealth, and the other a poor man. The man of wealth had great numbers of flocks and herds; read more. But the poor man had only one little she-lamb, which he had got and taken care of: from its birth it had been with him like one of his children; his meat was its food, and from his cup it took its drink, resting in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now a traveller came to the house of the man of wealth, but he would not take anything from his flock or his herd to make a meal for the traveller who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and made it ready for the man who had come. And David was full of wrath against that man; and he said to Nathan, By the living Lord, death is the right punishment for the man who has done this: And he will have to give back four times the value of the lamb, because he has done this and because he had no pity.
Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had given back to life, Go now, with all the people of your house, and get a living-place for yourselves wherever you are able; for by the word of the Lord, there will be great need of food in the land; and this will go on for seven years. So the woman got up and did as the man of God said; and she and the people of her house were living in the land of the Philistines for seven years. read more. And when the seven years were ended, the woman came back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king with a request for her house and her land. Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Now, give me an account of all the great things Elisha has done. And while he was giving the king the story of how Elisha had given life to the dead, the woman whose son had come back to life came to the king with a request for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, My lord king, this is the woman and this is her son, whose life Elisha gave back to him. And in answer to the king's questions, the woman gave him all the story. So the king gave orders to one of his unsexed servants, saying, Give her back all her property, and all the produce of her fields from the day when she went away from the land up till now. And Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-hadad, king of Aram, was ill; and they said to him, The man of God has come.
Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their countrymen the Jews. For there were some who said, We, our sons and our daughters, are a great number: let us get grain, so that we may have food for our needs. read more. And there were some who said, We are giving our fields and our vine-gardens and our houses for debt: let us get grain because we are in need.
And there were some who said, We are giving our fields and our vine-gardens and our houses for debt: let us get grain because we are in need. And there were others who said, We have given up our fields and our vine-gardens to get money for the king's taxes. read more. But our flesh is the same as the flesh of our countrymen, and our children as their children: and now we are giving our sons and daughters into the hands of others, to be their servants, and some of our daughters are servants even now: and we have no power to put a stop to it; for other men have our fields and our vine-gardens. And on hearing their outcry and what they said I was very angry.
And my hand will again be on you, washing away what is unclean as with soap, and taking away all your false metal;
Cursed are those who are joining house to house, and putting field to field, till there is no more living-space for any but themselves in all the land!
A curse is on him who is building his house by wrongdoing, and his rooms by doing what is not right; who makes use of his neighbour without payment, and gives him nothing for his work;
Give ear to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the hill of Samaria, by whom the poor are kept down, and those in need are crushed; who say to their lords, Get out the wine and give us drink.
Sorrow to those who are resting in comfort in Zion, and to those who have no fear of danger in the mountain of Samaria, the noted men of the chief of the nations, to whom the people of Israel come!
A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power.
For who has had a poor opinion of the day of small things? for they will be glad when they see the weighted measuring-line in the hand of Zerubbabel. Then he said in answer to me, These seven lights are the eyes of the Lord which go quickly up and down through all the earth.
As far as it is possible for you be at peace with all men.
For it has been the good pleasure of those of Macedonia and Achaia to send a certain amount of money for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.
Only it was their desire that we would give thought to the poor; which very thing I had much in mind to do.