Psalms 68:10

68:10 for you live among them. ¹ 

You sustain the oppressed with your good blessings, O God.

Psalms 72:2

72:2 Then he will judge ²  your people fairly,

and your oppressed ones ³  equitably.

Zephaniah 3:12

3:12 I will leave in your midst a humble and meek group of people, ⁴ 

and they will find safety in the Lord’s presence. ⁵ 

James 2:5-6

2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ⁶  Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor! ⁷  Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts?

¹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew text is unclear; it appears to read, “your animals, they live in it,” but this makes little, if any, sense in this context. Some suggest that חָיָּה (khayah) is a rare homonym here, meaning “community” (BDB 312 s.v.) or “dwelling place” (HALOT 310 s.v. III *הַיָּה). In this case one may take “your community/dwelling place” as appositional to the third feminine singular pronominal suffix at the end of v. 9, the antecedent of which is “your inheritance.” The phrase יָשְׁבוּ־בָהּ (yashvu-vah, “they live in it”) may then be understood as an asyndetic relative clause modifying “your community/dwelling place.” A literal translation of vv. 9b-10a would be, “when it [your inheritance] is tired, you sustain it, your community/dwelling place in [which] they live.”

² tn The prefixed verbal form appears to be an imperfect, not a jussive.

³ sn These people are called God’s oppressed ones because he is their defender (see Pss 9:12, 18; 10:12; 12:5).

³ tn Heb “needy and poor people.” The terms often refer to a socioeconomic group, but here they may refer to those who are humble in a spiritual sense.

⁴ tn Heb “and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.”

⁴ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

⁵ tn This is singular: “the poor person,” perhaps referring to the hypothetical one described in vv. 2-3.