standing in the community save that of slaves or hirelings inasmuch as the rights of citizenship were indissolubly bound up with landownership.33 Civil rights formerly enjoyed by both rich and poor alike regardless of the extent or relative value of their holdings came to be the sole prerogative of wealthy property owners constituting the upper stratum of Israelitish society. But the ill-gotten land shall be smitten with barrenness. 'Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, spacious ones and fair shall be uninhabited. For ten yokes of vineyard34 shall yield one bath35 and the seed of a homer36 shall yield an ephah3 and lambs shall graze upon the ruined places of Jerusalem as upon a pasture. "38 Yahwe will enter into judgment with the elders39 and its princes:40 "Ye have eaten up the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye crush my people and grind the face of the poor?'42 The leaders of the people are bent on wringing the uttermost farthing from the poor. "Thy law-makers are law-breakers43 and companions of thieves; every one loveth a bribe and pursueth rewards; to the orphans they do not jus

33 Buhl, S.V.I., 45; Marti, Jes., 55.

34 DAY, i. e., as much as a yoke of oxen can plough in a day.

35

a liquid measure containing 7 gallons and 4 pints.

tice and the cause of the widow cometh not unto them." Laws are enacted by the magnates without due regard to the claims of equity and justice, thus facilitating the perpetration of grievous wrongs against those most in need of legal protection. "Woe unto them that draw up mischievous ordinances and are continually writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to take away the right from the poor of my people; that widows may be their prey and that they may rob the fatherless. What then will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation that cometh from afar?"746 Jeremiah complains: 'Among my people are found wicked men . . . they set a trap, they catch men.48 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit;50 therefore they are become great and waxen rich. They do not administer justice, the cause of the fatherless and the right of the needy they do not judge. Should I not punish such things?"51 Social unrighteousness in high places must cease, for thus saith the Lord: 'Execute ye justice and righteousness and deliver the spoiled52 out of the hand of the oppressor, and do not oppress,

"Isa. 1: 23.

45 dallim.

"Isa. 10: 1-3; cp. 29: 21.

47

יקושים instead of מוקשים and reads ישור כשך LXX omits 8rt eindensav 2prouou docets : משחית for (להשחית) לשחת also

καὶ παγίδας ἔστησαν τοῦ διαφθεῖραι ἄνδρας καὶ συνελαμβάνοσαν.

49

", a wicker basket in which birds were kept.

do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. '53 But, nevertheless, the abuse continued. 'In thy midst have they dealt deceitfully with the stranger, and vexed the fatherless and the widow."55 The example set by rapacious officials and hardhearted moneyed magnates is even imitated by the rank and file of the common people. "The people of the land have dealt deceitfully and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and needy, and they have oppressed the stranger without cause."57 Covetousness and the love of gain have led to an almost universal disregard of the simplest demands of religion and humanity. Social injustice is again the theme toward the close of the prophetic period. 'Render true decisions . . . and do not oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother. "58 The book of Malachi bears testimony

Jer. 22:3; cp. 7:5-7.

54Jerusalem.'

Ezek. 22: 7b.

6 'According to Sulzberger the 'am ha-ares was a federal assembly or representative body composed of the poorer classes. "The Parliament of Israel had its humble beginnings at the city gate, where the elders of the town, 'comers of the gate,' sat to hold the Town Council and the Municipal Court. Gradually there was evolved, from this institution, the tribal 'Am, which dealt with the larger matters of the district inhabited by the tribe. Friendliness among neighbors, and the necessity of defense against enemies, produced alliances between several tribes, and finally there resulted a union of all or nearly all the tribes of Israel. Then only could there have been formed a general gathering of delegates, an 'Am of the land, our 'Am ha-ares." Polity of Ancient Hebrews, p. 3; cp. 58-59, 76, 79. Cp. Schürer, Gesch. d. Jüd. Volkes,3 I, 400, n. 54.

57 22: 29.

58 Zech. 7: 9a, 10.

to the long-continued prevalence of violence and fraud in spite of the old prophetic demand for righteousness between man and man. 'I will draw near

you for judgment, and I will be a swift witness . . against those who defraud the hireling, the widow and the fatherless and against those who abuse the stranger59 and who do not fear me, saith Yahwe Sabaoth, '60

The social problem, as viewed by the prophets, resolves itself, for the most part, into a question of property in land. The appropriation of tribal and other lands by the king was regarded as one of the curses of the monarchy.61 This explains Elijah's attitude toward King Ahab, alluded to in 1 Kings 21. It was quite clear to men like Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah that the concentration of land in the hands of a ruling class, if unchecked, would gradually result in the dispossession of numerous ancient clanships and families.62 In their endeavor to protect the property rights of the latter, the prophets took up a hostile attitude toward all concentration of land in general.63

62

63

Cp. Hos. 5: 10; Mic. 2:1-2; Isa. 3:14; 5: 8.

Cp. Wallis, Sociological Study of the Bible, 154.

CHAPTER IX

POOR LAWS

Regard for the poor, in the mind of the prophets, is an essential part of religion. Sufficient has perhaps been said as to the underlying causes of social maladjustment in the period embraced by these powerful champions of the poor and distressed. The remedies proposed by the prophets were ignored. Notwithstanding the fact that their efforts in behalf of the poor and oppressed had no appreciable effect upon the prevailing social order, the principle remained. Resident aliens and others having little or no legal status are likewise commended by Hebrew legislators to the philanthropic regard of the more prosperous members of the community.

Maltreatment of strangers will be punished by the God of Israel since they are to be regarded as guests of the ultimate and supreme Lord of the land. 'A stranger1 shalt thou not wrong, neither shalt thou oppress him. If thou afflict him in any wise and he cry at all unto me, I will surely hear his cry."2 As toward the stranger, so toward the widow and fatherless, no harshness is to be shown. 'A widow or fatherless child ye shall not oppress. 93 Yahwe's impartiality in meting out justice should be a further motive to obedience: 'For Yahwe your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords . . . who establisheth

13