Poverty In The Old Testament

In the Old Testament poverty denotes both a lack of economic resources and material goods, as well as political and legal powerlessness. In ancient Israel the poor weren’t a social class, rather they were a diverse body consisting of small farmers, day laborers, beggars, debt slaves and village dwellers. Various biblical texts discuss their plight, offering different analyses of their situation. The books of law regulate their treatment, in particular, the legal codes ensure the social well-being of the poor through distribution of food and other goods and restrictions on slave ownership. The prophetic texts largely concern themselves with the poor being exploited by large landowners and the ruling class in Israel. The books of wisdom divide over poverty. Proverbs regularly states that poverty is the result of laziness whist Job and Ecclesiastes understand poverty to be the result of exploitation. Finally, the Psalms often discuss God’s concern for the poor. Outside these blocks poverty is dealt with only occasionally. The narrative literature of the Pentateuch isn’t concerned with the issue, neither is most of Deuteronomy. Ruth, Esther and Daniel only mention it as an aside, not dealing with it in any way.
It is important to note the distribution of the different terms for poverty throughout the bible. There are a number of words in the Hebrew Bible for poverty (ebyon, dal, mahsor, misken, ani, anawim and ras) despite there being several different words for poverty in Hebrew, all with different meanings, no one writer uses all of them.

A. Ebyon -The Beggarly Poor
B. Dal -The Poor Peasant
C. Mahsor -The Lazy Poor
D. Misken -Poverty is Better
E. Ras -Political and Economic Inferiority
F. Ani -The Injustice of Oppression
G. Anawim -A Political Movement of the Pious Poor

In this essay I will look more closely at terms A, B, E.

A The term ebyon occurs 61 time in the Hebrew Bible. Largely in the Prophetic books and the Psalms, more specifically, the

Bibliography: Bryce, G. 1979. A Legacy of Wisdom Donald, T Gibson, J. 1977. Canaanite Myths and Legends. Gillingham, S. 1989. The Poor in the Psalms. Kennedy, J. 1898. Studies in Hebrew Synonyms. Kraus, H. 1986. Theology in the Psalms. Malchow, B. 1982. Social justice in the Wisdom Literature.