on the established precedents of a growing business community. The latter represents him as giving his coat of mail in pledge for the payment of a loan of grain. The chief exponents of Muslim law concur in deeming pledges legal, but "no pledge shall be distrained for debt."66 The pledge, of course, is held by the creditor as security for the debt incurred by the debtor, the former being entitled to the use or usufruct of the pledged property until the loan is repaid. In more modern times land is frequently given as security with disastrous results to the impoverished farmers. "The soil is fallen thus into servitude: and when the mostly honest (Muslim) husbandmen-landowners have at last mortgaged all for their debts; and are become tenants at will to those extortioners, they begin to forsake the villages. ''67

65 Mecca and Medina.

Hedaya, second edition, 630. "Doughty, op. cit., II, 388.

CHAPTER VIII

THE SOCIAL PROBLEM AS VIEWED BY THE PROPHETS

The attitude of the prophets regarding landed property, especially in its relation to the social problem, is of the greatest interest. In the Northern Kingdom Ahab is rebuked by Elijah for treacherously seizing the land of Naboth. The judicial murder of a fellow citizen who had refused to sell the family inheritance shall surely be visited upon the heads of the guilty offenders. "Hast thou murdered and robbed? . . In the place where the dogs licked up Naboth's blood shall they lick up thine also." The moral indignation of the prophet rises to the dignity of a national tragedy ending in the subversion of the house of Ahab.2 In carrying out his programme Jehu had the support of the founder of a remarkable sect advocating a return to the simple nomadic life of the desert. A reactionary movement of which the Rechabites were the formal expression had set in among the lower classes against the encroachments of Canaanitish culture and its concomitant evils. But Canaanitish culture and commercialism had come to stay, and the movement failed to achieve any permanent results. A grasping and usurious spirit had taken possession of the upper classes. Insolvent debtors and their

11 K. 21: 19.

22 K. 9: 24 f.

3 2 K. 10: 15 f.

4 Jer. 35; cp. 1 Chron. 2: 55.

996

families were oppressed and enslaved. 'Now there cried a certain woman of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor has come to take unto him my two sons to be bondservants." The creditor will agree to no compromise, or to the remission of the debt even if appealed to by the venerable successor of Elijah. And the best that the sympathetic prophet can do is to procure the means of satisfying the tyrant's claim: "sell the oil and pay thy creditor and live thou and thy children of the rest.' Innocent men' are sold into slavery for the trivial debt of a silver piece or a pair of shoes. Justice is at a premium in the land. Bribes are given to the judges by unscrupulous creditors.10 Those wishing to defend their cause are repelled: "Yea, the needy in the gate11 they thrust aside.""12 Greedy corn merchants anxious to resume their profitable business are asking: 'When will the new moon be gone that we may sell grain and the sabbath that we may offer corn?"13 Not content with selling 'the refuse of the corn' for a high price 'they are diminishing the ephah1 and enlarging the sheqel15 and provid

$ 2 K. 4: 1.

* 2 K. 4: 7.

'sadiq.

Am. 2: 6b; 8: 6a.

Am. 5: 10.

10 Am. 5: 12a; cp. 1 Sam. 12: 3.

11'court.'

12 Am. 5: 12b.

13 Am. 8: 5a.

21.26-40.62 quarts. Benz. H.A., 183; Nowack, H.A., I, 203.

=

=

15 silver sheqel 14.55 grains (= $.60); sheqel in gold 16.37 grains ($10.80).

ing false balances. "16 Israel has followed the example of the Canaanites in the fortified cities and degenerated into a nation of dishonest merchants. 'Canaan1-in his hand are false balances, he loves to defraud.18-Therefore since ye trample upon the weak and take from him exactions19 of grain-ye have built houses of hewn stone but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted vineyards of delight but ye shall not drink wine of them. '20 The day of judgment is at hand.21 The removal of boundary stones on the part of grasping officials, so characteristic of the land-grabbing tendencies of the upper class under the Hebrew monarchy, shall not go unpunished. "The princes of Judah were like them that remove the landmark;22 I will pour out my wrath upon them like water!'23 Lamenting against the cruel practices of his contemporaries, Micah exclaims: 'Woe to them that devise iniquity

upon their beds! When the morning is light they practice it because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields and rob (them); and houses

16 Am. 8: 5b.

17 Merchant.' 'Israel,' so Nowack, ad loc., in H.K.A.T.

1 Hos. 12: 8(); cp. v. 9.

19'tax.'

20 Am. 5: 11.

21 Am. 4: 1-2; 5: 27.

Deut.

Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark." 27:17; cp. 19: 14; Prov. 22: 28; 23: 10; Job 24: 2. In the Shurpu series we meet with a similar offence among a list of possible sins which the average Assyro-Babylonian might commit: "Has he drawn a false boundary, not drawn the right boundary? Has he removed the limit, mark, or boundary?” Jastrow, R.B.A., 308. Some Arabs "will tell thee sooth-as they would not falsify landmarks within their own diras." Doughty, I, 423.

23 Hos. 5: 10.

and take (them) away and they defraud a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. "24 Mothers are ejected from their homes and forever separated from their children, who are ruthlessly sold to foreigners.25 But the expropriation of poor proprietors accomplished by assiduous plotting and violence will soon be followed by the dispossession of the cruel grandees themselves.26 Their lands shall be surveyed and divided among the Chaldeans: 'We are utterly spoiled; he hath changed the portion of my people: how he hath departed from me! Surely turning away, he hath divided our fields (among others). Therefore thou shalt have none to cast a measuring-line27 by lot28 in the congregation of Jahwe, '29 The absorption of small holdings by wealthy landowners has apparently reached its climax in the age of Isaiah. Indeed, land-grabbing is placed in the very forefront of Judah's iniquities by the prophet. 'Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there is no room left and ye are made to dwell30 alone within the land. '31 Cruel evictions were an every-day occurrence.32 Farmers thus expelled from their homes had no

24 Mic. 2: 1-2.

25 Mic. 2: 9; cp. Nowack, ad loc., in H.K.A.T.

26 Mic. 2: 3-4.

27 (1) cord, or measuring-line. (2) the area measured; 2 Sam. 8: 2; Josh. 17: 14; 19:9; Deut. 32: 9. (a) the inheritance; 1 Chron. 16: 18; Ps. 78: 55; 105: 11.

28 goral, Ar. jaral, (1) a stone.

(2) a parcel of land assigned by

lot. Judg. 1: 3; Josh. 17: 14; Num. 36: 3; Ps. 16:5-6; 125: 3.