832 verses about Poverty

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);

if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;

if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate,

if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,

Who doesn’t respect the persons of princes, nor respects the rich more than the poor; for they all are the work of his hands.

so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.

“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.

For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever.

He lies in wait near the villages. From ambushes, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly set against the helpless.

The helpless are crushed. They collapse. They fall under his strength.

Arise, Yahweh! God, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the helpless.

But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.

to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that man who is of the earth may terrify no more.

“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”

You frustrate the plan of the poor, because Yahweh is his refuge.

All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who can’t keep his soul alive.

Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted.

This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.

All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”

The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright on the path.

Better is a little that the righteous has, than the abundance of many wicked.

The wicked borrow, and don’t pay back, but the righteous give generously.

But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.

Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.

You sell your people for nothing, and have gained nothing from their sale.