Isaiah 11:4

11:4 He will treat the poor fairly, ¹ 

and make right decisions ²  for the downtrodden of the earth. ³ 

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, ⁴ 

and order the wicked to be executed. ⁵ 

Isaiah 14:32

14:32 How will they respond to the messengers of this nation? ⁶ 

Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure;

the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.

Isaiah 29:19

29:19 The downtrodden will again rejoice in the Lord;

the poor among humankind will take delight ⁷  in the Holy One of Israel. ⁸ 

Isaiah 33:2

33:2 Lord, be merciful to us! We wait for you.

Give us strength each morning! ⁹ 

Deliver us when distress comes. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 66:2

66:2 My hand made them; ¹¹ 

that is how they came to be,” ¹²  says the Lord.

I show special favor ¹³  to the humble and contrite,

who respect what I have to say. ¹⁴ 

Job 5:15-16

5:15 So he saves ¹⁵  from the sword that comes from their mouth, ¹⁶ 

even ¹⁷  the poor from the hand of the powerful.

5:16 Thus the poor have hope,

and iniquity ¹⁸  shuts its mouth. ¹⁹ 

Psalms 12:5

12:5 “Because of the violence done to the oppressed, ²⁰ 

because of the painful cries ²¹  of the needy,

I will spring into action,” ²²  says the Lord.

“I will provide the safety they so desperately desire.” ²³ 

Psalms 35:10

35:10 With all my strength I will say, ²⁴ 

“O Lord, who can compare to you?

You rescue ²⁵  the oppressed from those who try to overpower them; ²⁶ 

the oppressed and needy from those who try to rob them.” ²⁷ 

Psalms 72:4

72:4 He will defend ²⁸  the oppressed among the people;

he will deliver ²⁹  the children ³⁰  of the poor

and crush the oppressor.

Psalms 72:13

72:13 He will take pity ³¹  on the poor and needy;

the lives of the needy he will save.

Psalms 107:41

107:41 Yet he protected ³²  the needy from oppression,

and cared for his families like a flock of sheep.

Psalms 119:31

119:31 I hold fast ³³  to your rules.

O Lord, do not let me be ashamed!

Zephaniah 3:12

3:12 I will leave in your midst a humble and meek group of people, ³⁴ 

and they will find safety in the Lord’s presence. ³⁵ 

James 2:5

2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ³⁶  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?

[11:4]  ¹ tn Heb “with justice” (so NAB) or “with righteousness” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[11:4]  ² tn Heb “make decisions with rectitude”; cf. ASV, NRSV “and decide with equity.”

[11:4]  ³ tn Or “land” (NAB, NCV, CEV). It is uncertain if the passage is picturing universal dominion or focusing on the king’s rule over his covenant people. The reference to God’s “holy mountain” in v. 9 and the description of renewed Israelite conquests in v. 14 suggest the latter, though v. 10 seems to refer to a universal kingdom (see 2:2-4).

[11:4]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and he will strike the earth with the scepter of his mouth.” Some have suggested that in this context אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”) as an object of judgment seems too broad in scope. The parallelism is tighter if one emends the word to ץ(י)עָרִ (’arits, “potentate, tyrant”). The phrase “scepter of his mouth” refers to the royal (note “scepter”) decrees that he proclaims with his mouth. Because these decrees will have authority and power (see v. 2) behind them, they can be described as “striking” the tyrants down. Nevertheless, the MT reading may not need emending. Isaiah refers to the entire “earth” as the object of God’s judgment in several places without specifying the wicked as the object of the judgment (Isa 24:17-21; 26:9, 21; 28:22; cf. 13:11).

[11:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.” The “breath of his lips” refers to his speech, specifically in this context his official decrees that the wicked oppressors be eliminated from his realm. See the preceding note.

[14:32]  ⁶ sn The question forces the Philistines to consider the dilemma they will face – surrender and oppression, or battle and death.

[29:19]  ⁷ tn Or “will rejoice” (NIV, NCV, NLT).

[29:19]  ⁸ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[33:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “Be their arm each morning.” “Arm” is a symbol for strength. The mem suffixed to the noun has been traditionally understood as a third person suffix, but this is contrary to the context, where the people speak of themselves in the first person. The mem (מ) is probably enclitic with ellipsis of the pronoun, which can be supplied from the context. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:589, n. 1.

[33:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[Be] also our deliverance in the time of distress.”

[66:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all these.” The phrase refers to the heavens and earth, mentioned in the previous verse.

[66:2]  ¹² tn Heb “and all these were.” Some prefer to emend וַיִּהְיוּ (vayyihyu, “and they were”) to וְלִי הָיוּ (vÿli hayu, “and to me they were”), i.e., “and they belong to me.”

[66:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “and to this one I look” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[66:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to the humble and the lowly in spirit and the one who trembles at my words.”

[5:15]  ¹⁵ tn The verb, the Hiphil preterite of יָשַׁע (yasha’, “and he saves”) indicates that by frustrating the plans of the wicked God saves the poor. So the vav (ו) consecutive shows the result in the sequence of the verses.

[5:15]  ¹⁶ tn The juxtaposition of “from the sword from their mouth” poses translation difficulties. Some mss do not have the preposition on “their mouth,” but render the expression as a construct: “from the sword of their mouth.” This would mean their tongue, and by metonymy, what they say. The expression “from their mouth” corresponds well with “from the hand” in the next colon. And as E. Dhorme (Job, 67) notes, what is missing is a parallel in the first part with “the poor” in the second. So he follows Cappel in repointing “from the sword” as a Hophal participle, מֹחֳרָב (mokhorav), meaning “the ruined.” If a change is required, this has the benefit of only changing the pointing. The difficulty with this is that the word “desolate, ruined” is not used for people, but only to cities, lands, or mountains. The sense of the verse can be supported from the present pointing: “from the sword [which comes] from their mouth”; the second phrase could also be in apposition, meaning, “from the sword, i.e., from their mouth.”

[5:15]  ¹⁷ tn If the word “poor” is to do double duty, i.e., serving as the object of the verb “saves” in the first colon as well as the second, then the conjunction should be explanatory.

[5:16]  ¹⁸ tn Other translations render this “injustice” (NIV, NRSV, CEV) or “unrighteousness” (NASB).

[5:16]  ¹⁹ tn The verse summarizes the result of God’s intervention in human affairs, according to Eliphaz’ idea that even-handed justice prevails. Ps 107:42 parallels v. 16b.

[12:5]  ²⁰ tn The term translated “oppressed” is an objective genitive; the oppressed are the recipients/victims of violence.

[12:5]  ²¹ tn Elsewhere in the psalms this noun is used of the painful groans of prisoners awaiting death (79:11; 102:20). The related verb is used of the painful groaning of those wounded in combat (Jer 51:52; Ezek 26:15) and of the mournful sighing of those in grief (Ezek 9:4; 24:17).

[12:5]  ²² tn Heb “I will rise up.”

[12:5]  ²³ tn Heb “I will place in deliverance, he pants for it.” The final two words in Hebrew (יָפִיחַ לוֹ, yafiakh lo) comprise an asyndetic relative clause, “the one who pants for it.” “The one who pants” is the object of the verb “place” and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix (in the phrase “for it”) is “deliverance.” Another option is to translate, “I will place in deliverance the witness for him,” repointing יָפִיחַ (a Hiphil imperfect from פּוּחַ, puakh, “pant”) as יָפֵחַ (yafeakh), a noun meaning “witness.” In this case the Lord would be promising protection to those who have the courage to support the oppressed in the court of law. However, the first part of the verse focuses on the oppressed, not their advocates.

[35:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “all my bones will say.”

[35:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “[the one who] rescues.” The substantival participle in the Hebrew text characterizes God as one who typically rescues the oppressed.

[35:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “from [the one who is] too strong for him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense. The typical oppressed individual and typical oppressor are in view.

[35:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the oppressed [one] and needy [one] from [the one who] robs him.” As in the previous line, the singular forms are used in a representative sense.

[72:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “judge [for].”

[72:4]  ²⁹ tn The prefixed verbal form appears to be an imperfect, not a jussive.

[72:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “sons.”

[72:13]  ³¹ tn The prefixed verb form is best understood as a defectively written imperfect (see Deut 7:16).

[107:41]  ³² tn Heb “set on high.”

[119:31]  ³³ tn Or “cling to.”

[3:12]  ³⁴ 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.

[3:12]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.”

[2:5]  ³⁶ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.