832 verses about Poverty

Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.

The rich man had very many flocks and herds,

but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him.

A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to prepare for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

brought beds, basins, earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans, lentils, roasted grain,

So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her, and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.”

As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

She said, “As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have a cake, but a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land, to all the springs of water, and to all the brooks. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, that we not lose all the animals.”

Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”

Elisha said to her, “What should I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.”

Then he said, “Go, borrow empty containers from of all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers.

Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full.”

So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured oil.

When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” He said to her, “There isn’t another container.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

Then she came and told the man of God. He said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”

But as one was cutting down a tree, the ax head fell into the water. Then he cried, and said, “Alas, my master! For it was borrowed.”

There was a great famine in Samaria. Behold, they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.

As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!”

The king said to her, “What is your problem?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’

When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth underneath on his body.

Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. They said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die?

If we say, ‘We will enter into the city,’ then the famine is in the city, and we will die there. If we sit still here, we also die. Now therefore come, and let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will only die.”

When these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drink, and carried away silver, gold, and clothing, and went and hid it. Then they came back, and entered into another tent, and carried things from there also, and went and hid them.

One of his servants answered, “Please let some people take five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel who are left in it. Behold, they are like all the multitude of Israel who are consumed. Let us send and see.”

At the end of seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines. Then she went out to beg the king for her house and for her land.

For Yahweh saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for all, slave and free, and there was no helper for Israel.

He carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. No one remained, except the poorest people of the land.

On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

The men who have been mentioned by name rose up and took the captives, and with the plunder clothed all who were naked among them, dressed them, gave them sandals, and gave them something to eat and to drink, anointed them, carried all the feeble of them on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria.

their camels, four hundred thirty-five; their donkeys, six thousand seven hundred twenty.

They said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews.

For there were that said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”

There were also some that said, “We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine.”

There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral.

Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring our sons and our daughters into bondage to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. It is also not in our power to help it, because other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, “You exact usury, everyone of his brother.” I held a great assembly against them.

I likewise, my brothers and my servants, lend them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury.

Please restore to them, even today, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, that you are charging them.”

Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor.

But the former governors who were before me were supported by the people, and took bread and wine from them, plus forty shekels of silver; yes, even their servants ruled over the people; but I didn’t do so, because of the fear of God.

Now the city was wide and large; but the people were few therein, and the houses were not built.

I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them; so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had each fled to his field.

or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,

whose harvest the hungry eats up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance.

so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.

But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.

The caravans that travel beside them turn away. They go up into the waste, and perish.

The caravans of Tema looked. The companies of Sheba waited for them.

Did I say, ‘Give to me?’ or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance?’

“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, as a hireling who looks for his wages,

He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.

He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

His children shall seek the favor of the poor. His hands shall give back his wealth.

For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.

For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

When they cast down, you shall say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.

There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.

They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.

They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.

They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,

So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.

They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.

From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.

The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.

He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.

Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;

he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.

Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,

the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.

I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn’t know, I searched out.

Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?

They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.

They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief;

So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

Among the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they are gathered together.

On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.

He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?

“If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it

(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, her I have guided from my mother’s womb);