55 Bible Verses about Poverty, Causes Of

And to Adam he said, Because you gave ear to the voice of your wife and took of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take, the earth is cursed on your account; in pain you will get your food from it all your life. Thorns and waste plants will come up, and the plants of the field will be your food; With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back.

And out of the earth the Lord made every tree to come, delighting the eye and good for food; and in the middle of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden giving water to the garden; and from there it was parted and became four streams. The name of the first is Pishon, which goes round about all the land of Havilah where there is gold.read more.
And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: this river goes round all the land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Tigris, which goes to the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

Because you did not give honour to the Lord your God, worshipping him gladly, with joy in your hearts on account of all your wealth of good things; For this cause you will become servants to those whom the Lord your God will send against you, without food and drink and clothing, and in need of all things: and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck till he has put an end to you.

He who is cruel to the poor for the purpose of increasing his profit, and he who gives to the man of wealth, will only come to be in need.

For the Lord, the Lord of armies, is about to take away from Jerusalem and from Judah all their support; their store of bread and of water;

But in all your towns I have kept food from your teeth, and in all your places there has been need of bread: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord.

So because the poor man is crushed under your feet, and you take taxes from him of grain: you have made for yourselves houses of cut stone, but you will not take your rest in them; the fair vine-gardens planted by your hands will not give you wine.

A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in sleep: Then loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need like an armed man

He who is slow in his work becomes poor, but the hand of the ready worker gets in wealth.

In all hard work there is profit, but talk only makes a man poor.

Do not be a lover of sleep, or you will become poor: keep your eyes open, and you will have bread enough.

A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in sleep: So loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need like an armed man.

The lover of pleasure will be a poor man: the lover of wine and oil will not get wealth.

For a loose woman is looking for a cake of bread, but another man's wife goes after one's very life.

By ploughing his land a man will have bread in full measure; but he who goes after good-for-nothing persons will be poor enough.

And when everything was gone, there was no food to be had in that country, and he was in need.

Need and shame will be the fate of him who is uncontrolled by training; but he who takes note of teaching will be honoured.

The purposes of the man of industry have their outcome only in wealth; but one who is over-quick in acting will only come to be in need.

Be not one of those who give their hands in an agreement, or of those who make themselves responsible for debts: If you have nothing with which to make payment, he will take away your bed from under you.

For this reason the kingdom of heaven is like a king, who went over his accounts with his servants. And at the start, one came to him who was in his debt for ten thousand talents. And because he was not able to make payment, his lord gave orders for him, and his wife, and his sons and daughters, and all he had, to be given for money, and payment to be made.

A man may give freely, and still his wealth will be increased; and another may keep back more than is right, but only comes to be in need.

He who is ever desiring wealth goes running after money, and does not see that need will come on him.

In all things I was an example to you of how, in your lives, you are to give help to the feeble, and keep in memory the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, There is a greater blessing in giving than in getting.

You were looking for much, and it came to little; and when you got it into your house, I took it away with a breath. Why? says the Lord of armies. Because of my house which is a waste, while every man takes care of the house which is his.

And Israel was in great need because of Midian; and the cry of the children of Israel went up to the Lord.

Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;

There is much food in the ploughed land of the poor; but it is taken away by wrongdoing.

Your country has become waste; your towns are burned with fire; as for your land, it is overturned before your eyes, made waste and overcome by men from strange lands.

See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies.

And there I will take care of you, so that you and your family may not be in need, for there are still five bad years to come.

So Joseph got all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh; for every Egyptian gave up his land in exchange for food, because of their great need; so all the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he made servants of them, town by town, from one end of Egypt to the other.

And there was a day when his sons and daughters were feasting in the house of their oldest brother, And a man came to Job, and said, The oxen were ploughing, and the asses were taking their food by their side: And the men of Sheba came against them and took them away, putting the young men to the sword, and I was the only one who got away safe to give you the news.read more.
And this one was still talking when another came, and said, The fire of God came down from heaven, burning up the sheep and the goats and the young men completely, and I was the only one who got away safe to give you the news. And this one was still talking when another came, and said, The Chaldaeans made themselves into three bands, and came down on the camels and took them away, putting the young men to the sword, and I was the only one who got away safe to give you the news. And this one was still talking when another came, and said, Your sons and your daughters were feasting together in their oldest brother's house, When a great wind came rushing from the waste land against the four sides of the house, and it came down on the young men, and they are dead; and I was the only one who got away safe to give you the news. Then Job got up, and after parting his clothing and cutting off his hair, he went down on his face to the earth, and gave worship, and said, With nothing I came out of my mother's body, and with nothing I will go back there; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; let the Lord's name be praised.

For the Lord your God is guiding you into a good land, a land of water-springs, of fountains, and deep streams flowing out from the valleys and the hills; A land of grain and vines and fig-trees and fair fruits; a land of oil-giving olive-trees and honey; Where there will be bread for you in full measure and you will be in need of nothing; a land where the very stones are iron and from whose hills you may get copper.

Keep yourselves in the fear of the Lord, all you his saints; for those who do so will have no need of anything. The young lions are in need and have no food; but those who are looking to the Lord will have every good thing.

I have been young, and now am old, but I have not seen the good man without help, or his children looking for bread.

Now a certain woman, the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, came crying to Elisha and said, Your servant my husband is dead; and to your knowledge he was a worshipper of the Lord; but now, the creditor has come to take my two children as servants in payment of his debt.

And a certain poor man, named Lazarus, was stretched out at his door, full of wounds,

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.

And Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven have a resting-place; but the Son of man has nowhere to put his head.

The property of the man of wealth is his strong town: the poor man's need is his destruction.

And the servant said to himself, What am I to do now that my lord takes away my position? I have not enough strength for working in the fields, and I would be shamed if I made requests for money from people in the streets.

Let him have drink, and his need will go from his mind, and the memory of his trouble will be gone.

Men do not have a low opinion of a thief who takes food when he is in need of it:

Put far from me all false and foolish things: do not give me great wealth or let me be in need, but give me only enough food: For fear that if I am full, I may be false to you and say, Who is the Lord? or if I am poor, I may become a thief, using the name of my God wrongly.

It is good for me to have been through trouble; so that I might come to the knowledge of your rules.

Because they all put in something out of what they had no need for; but she out of her need put in all she had, even all her living.

For they gave out of their wealth, having more than enough for themselves: but she, even out of her need, has put in all her living.

How while they were undergoing every sort of trouble, and were in the greatest need, they took all the greater joy in being able to give freely to the needs of others.

Give ear, my dear brothers; are not those who are poor in the things of this world marked out by God to have faith as their wealth, and for their heritage the kingdom which he has said he will give to those who have love for him?

I have knowledge of your troubles and how poor you are (but you have true wealth), and the evil words of those who say they are Jews, and are not, but are a Synagogue of Satan.

For you see the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how though he had wealth, he became poor on your account, so that through his need you might have wealth.

Jesus said to him, If you have a desire to be complete, go, get money for your property, and give it to the poor, and you will have wealth in heaven: and come after me. But hearing these words the young man went away sorrowing: for he had much property.

For you had pity on those who were in prison, and had joy in the loss of your property, in the knowledge that you still had a better property and one which you would keep for ever.

And if I give all my goods to the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it is of no profit to me.

As full of sorrow, but ever glad; as poor, but giving wealth to others; as having nothing, but still having all things.