James 2:5-6

2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ¹  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! ²  Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts?

Deuteronomy 15:7

The Spirit of Liberality

15:7 If a fellow Israelite ³  from one of your villages ⁴  in the land that the Lord your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive ⁵  to his impoverished condition. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 15:9

15:9 Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude ⁷  be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite ⁸  and you do not lend ⁹  him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you and you will be regarded as having sinned. ¹⁰ 

Deuteronomy 15:11

15:11 There will never cease to be some poor people in the land; therefore, I am commanding you to make sure you open ¹¹  your hand to your fellow Israelites ¹²  who are needy and poor in your land.

Psalms 62:9

62:9 Men are nothing but a mere breath;

human beings are unreliable. ¹³ 

When they are weighed in the scales,

all of them together are lighter than air. ¹⁴ 

Proverbs 17:5

17:5 The one who mocks the poor ¹⁵  insults ¹⁶  his Creator;

whoever rejoices over disaster will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 19:1

19:1 Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity ¹⁷ 

than one who is perverse in his speech ¹⁸  and is a fool. ¹⁹ 

Luke 1:52

1:52 He has brought down the mighty ²⁰  from their thrones, and has lifted up those of lowly position; ²¹ 

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

[2:6]  ² tn This is singular: “the poor person,” perhaps referring to the hypothetical one described in vv. 2-3.

[15:7]  ³ tn Heb “one of your brothers” (so NASB); NAB “one of your kinsmen”; NRSV “a member of your community.” See the note at v. 2.

[15:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “gates.”

[15:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “withdraw your hand.” Cf. NIV “hardhearted or tightfisted” (NRSV and NLT similar).

[15:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “from your needy brother.”

[15:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “your eye.”

[15:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “your needy brother.”

[15:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “give” (likewise in v. 10).

[15:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “it will be a sin to you.”

[15:11]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “make sure.”

[15:11]  ¹² tn Heb “your brother.”

[62:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “only a breath [are] the sons of mankind, a lie [are] the sons of man.” The phrases “sons of mankind” and “sons of man” also appear together in Ps 49:2. Because of the parallel line there, where “rich and poor” are mentioned, a number of interpreters and translators treat these expressions as polar opposites, בְּנֵי אָדָם (bÿney ’adam) referring to the lower classes and בְּנֵי אִישׁ (bÿney ’ish) to higher classes. But usage does not support such a view. The rare phrase בְּנֵי אִישׁ (“sons of man”) appears to refer to human beings in general in its other uses (see Pss 4:2; Lam 3:33). It is better to understand the phrases as synonymous expressions.

[62:9]  ¹⁴ tn The noun הֶבֶל (hevel), translated “a breath” earlier in the verse, appears again here.

[17:5]  ¹⁵ sn The parallelism helps define the subject matter: The one who “mocks the poor” (NAB, NASB, NIV) is probably one who “rejoices [NIV gloats] over disaster.” The poverty is hereby explained as a disaster that came to some. The topic of the parable is the person who mocks others by making fun of their misfortune.

[17:5]  ¹⁶ sn The Hebrew word translated “insults” (חֵרֵף, kheref) means “reproach; taunt” (as with a cutting taunt); it describes words that show contempt for or insult God. The idea of reproaching the Creator may be mistaking and blaming God’s providential control of the world (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 337). W. G. Plaut, however, suggests that mocking the poor means holding up their poverty as a personal failure and thus offending their dignity and their divine nature (Proverbs, 187).

[19:1]  ¹⁷ sn People should follow honesty even if it leads to poverty (e.g., Prov 18:23; 19:22).

[19:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “lips.” The term “lips” is a metonymy for what one says with his lips. The expression “perverse in his lips” refers to speech that is morally perverted. Some medieval Hebrew mss, the Syriac, and Tg. Prov 19:1 have “his ways” rather than “his lips” (e.g., Prov 28:6); cf. NAB.

[19:1]  ¹⁹ tc The Syriac and Tg. Prov 19:1 read “rich” instead of MT “fool.” This makes tighter antithetical parallelism than MT and is followed by NAB. However, the MT makes sense as it stands; this is an example of metonymical parallelism. The MT reading is also supported by the LXX. The Hebrew construction uses וְהוּא (vÿhu’), “and he [is],” before “fool.” This may be rendered “one who is perverse while a fool” or “a fool at the same time.”

[1:52]  ²⁰ tn Or “rulers.”

[1:52]  ²¹ tn Or “those of humble position”