The Bible and Economics

Moon Reflection, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

Part of an ongoing series looking at all the many passages in the Bible that deal with wealth and poverty issues. You can see the links to the other passages in the series under the heading "The Bible and Economics" below.

Today, I'm looking at the book of Job, which is a different sort of book than most of the Bible. The book is included with the books of Poetry (along with Psalms, Ecclesiastes, etc) and tells the story of Job.

Job is a very wealthy man who was always considered to be wise and moral. Then suddenly, terrible things happen to him. His children are all killed. He loses all his wealth. And finally, he becomes ill with a painful skin disease.

The majority of the book involves conversations between Job and his three friends (although, perhaps not such great friends) about the nature of life, God and human suffering.

Because of the poetic/parabolic nature of Job, one must be especially wary of lifting individual verses out of context. Not everything that Job or Job's friends suggest is reliable or morally sound.

With that said, here are some passages that touch on their ideas of wealth and poverty and related issues...

[Job's friend speaking...] If I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before God... provides rain for the earth; God sends water on the countryside.

The lowly, God sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety...

God saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; God saves them from the clutches of the powerful. So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth...

~Job 5

[Job's friend speaking...] Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, he will perish forever, like his own dung...

His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth...

What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.

For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.

Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure...

~Job 20

[Job speaking...] Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?

...There are those who move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen.

They drive away the orphan’s donkey and take the widow’s ox in pledge. They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding.

Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children...

The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.

Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry...

When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up, kills the poor and needy, and in the night steals forth like a thief...

~Job 24

[Job speaking of his own righteousness...] Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me, because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them.

The one who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing.

I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.

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

I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger...

~Job 29

More to come...