. . . learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause. ISA 1:17
John Gill
Learn to do good—Which men are naturally ignorant of; to do good they have no knowledge; nor can they that are accustomed to do evil learn to do good of themselves; but the Lord can teach them to profit, and of him they should ask wisdom, and desire, under the influence of his grace, to learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, and particularly to do acts of beneficence to all men, and especially to the household of faith; and also, the following ones,
Seek justice—Seek to do justice between man and man in any cause depending, without respect of persons:
Correct oppression—The poor that are oppressed by their neighbours that are richer and mightier than they, right their wrongs, and deliver them out of the hands of their oppressors:
Bring justice to the fatherless—Do justice to them who have none to take care of them, and defend them:
Plead the widow’s cause—That is desolate, and has none to plead her cause.
Rashi
Learn—It is punctuated “raphe,” weak, without a dagesh. This is from the form לָמֹד, learn to do good. One who teaches himself is of the “kal” form. Therefore, its imperative plural is voweled with a “chirik” like שִׁמְעוּ, אִמְרוּ, but one who teaches others is of the form of the “heavy conjugation” (pi’el) with a “dagesh,” and if one comes to command a number of people, the word is voweled לַמְּדוּ. And so, דִּרְשׁוּ, from the form דְרשׁ, but אַשְּׁרוּ in which the “shin” has a “dagesh,” is from the “heavy conjugation,” and from the form אַשֵּׁר; therefore, the imperative plural is voweled with a “patach” like בַּשְּׂרוּ, סַפְּרוּ, דַּבְּרוּ.
Strengthen the robbed—This is a Mishnaic term, אֲשַׁרְנוּהִי, “we have verified it” (Ketubot 21a); “if I had strength (אֲיַשֵּׁר)” (Gittin 30b); “May your strength be strengthened (יִישַׁר)” (Shabbat 87a). Another explanation is: Lead him in the path of truth to acquire what rightfully belongs to him. An expression of: (Job 23:11) “My foot held its steps (בֲּאֲשׁוּרוֹ)”; (Pro 23:19) “And go (וְאַשֵׁר) in the way of your heart.”
The robbed—Heb. חָמוֹץ, similar to (Psa 71:4) “from the hand of the unrighteous and the robber (וּמְחַמֵּץ).”
Bring justice—So-and-so is innocent and so-and-so is guilty.
Plead the widow’s cause—Endeavor in their quarrel to plead for her, for she cannot go out to pursue her opponents.
God wants us to learn to do good and seek justice, which takes changing from the inside out. Not only this, we are to keep away from injustice as well, which takes repentance. Furthermore, we are to speak up and take personal involvement when we see injustice being done to others. God tells us that we are the salt and light of the earth (Mat 5:13-14). How did meeting Christ spur you toward acts of righteousness or justice? What act of righteousness or justice do you believe God is asking you to become personally involved in?
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
John Gill
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless—Or, judge them; such as have no money to enter and carry on a suit, and have no friends to assist and advise them, and abide by them; these should be taken under the care and wing of judges; their cause should be attended to, and justice done them; their persons should be protected, and their property defended and secured for, since they are called gods, they ought to imitate him whose name they bear, who is the Father of the fatherless, the judge of the widows, and the helper of the poor that commit themselves to him (Psa 10:14; 68:5), such a righteous judge and good magistrate was Job; see Job 29:12,
Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute—Or “justify” them, pronounce them righteous, give the cause for them, not right or wrong, nor because they are poor and needy, but because they are in the right; for, if wicked, they are not to be justified, this is an abomination to the Lord; see Lev 19:15; Deu 25:1; Pro 17:15.
Rashi
Maintain the right—If the poor man is right in his cause, do not reverse the verdict to condemn him in order to favor the wicked.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked. PSA 82:3-4
John Gill
Rescue the weak and the needy—From his adversary and oppressor, who is mightier than he, and draws him to the judgment seat; when it is not in his power to defend himself against him, and get out of his hands, unless a righteous judge will show a regard to him and his cause; and sometimes even an unjust judge, through importunity, will do this, as everyone ought, and every righteous one will:
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked—This was what the poor widow importuned the unjust judge for, and obtained (Luk 18:3-5).
3 Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
15 Do you think you are a king
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
declares the Lord. JER 22:3, 15-16
13 You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
John Gill
You are the salt of the earth—This is to be understood of the disciples and apostles of Christ; who might be compared to “salt,” because of the savoury doctrines they preached; as all such are, which are agreeable to the Scriptures, and are of the evangelic kind, which are full of Christ, serve to exalt him, and to magnify the grace of God; and are suitable to the experiences of the saints, and are according to godliness, and tend to promote it: also because of their savoury lives and conversations; whereby they recommended, and gave sanction to the doctrines they preached, were examples to the saints, and checks upon wicked men. These were the salt “of the earth”; that is, of the inhabitants of the earth, not of the land of Judea only, where they first lived and preached, but of the whole world, into which they were afterwards sent to preach the gospel.
But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?—The “taste” here supposed that it may be lost, cannot mean the taste of grace, or true grace itself, which cannot be lost, being an incorruptible seed; but either gifts qualifying men for the ministry, which may cease; or the savoury doctrines of the gospel, which may be departed from; or a seeming savoury conversation, which may be neglected; or that seeming taste, zeal, and affection, with which the gospel is preached, which may be dropped: and particular respect seems to be had to Judas, whom Christ had chosen to the apostleship, and was a devil; and who he knew would lose his usefulness and place, and become an unprofitable wretch, and at last be rejected of God and men; and this case is proposed to them all, in order to engage them to take heed to themselves, their doctrine and ministry. Moreover, this is but a supposition;
If salt—And proves no matter of fact; and the Jews have a saying, that all that season lose their taste, “but salt does not lose its taste.” Should it do so,
It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet—Salt is no longer good for anything except to make things savoury, and preserve from putrefacation; and when it has lost its taste, it is of no use, neither to men nor beasts, as some things are when corrupted; nor is it of any use to the land, or dunghill, for it makes barren, and not fruitful: so ministers of the word, when they have dropped the savoury doctrines of the gospel, or have quitted their former seeming savoury and exemplary conversations; as their usefulness is gone, so, generally speaking, it is never retrieved; they are cast out of the churches of Christ, and are treated with contempt by everyone.
You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt. LEV 2:13
Berakhot 5a:19
And that is the statement of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, as Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: The word covenant is used with regard to salt, and the word covenant is used with regard to afflictions. The word covenant is used with regard to salt, as it is written: “The salt of the covenant with your God should not be excluded from your grain offering; with all your sacrifices you shall offer salt” (Lev 2:13). And the word covenant is used with regard to afflictions, as it is written: “These are the words of the covenant” (Deu 28:69). Just as, in the covenant mentioned with regard to salt, the salt sweetens the taste of the meat and renders it edible, so too in the covenant mentioned with regard to suffering, the suffering cleanses a person’s transgressions, purifying him for a more sublime existence.
John Gill
You shall season all your grain offerings with salt—Which makes food savoury, and preserves from putrefaction; denoting the savouriness and acceptableness of Christ as a grain offering to his people, he being savoury food, such as their souls love, as well as to God the Father, who is well pleased with his sacrifice; and also the perpetuity of his sacrifice, which always has the same virtue in it, and of him as a grain offering, who is that grain which endures to everlasting life (Joh 6:27) and also the grave and gracious conversation of those that by faith feed upon him (Mar 9:50; Col 4:6),
You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering—This seems to suggest the reason why salt was used in grain offerings, and in all others, because it was a symbol of the perpetuity of the covenant, which from thence is called a covenant of salt (Num 18:19), namely, the covenant of the priesthood, to which these sacrifices belonged (Num 25:13) hence the Targum of Jonathan,
“because the twenty four gifts of the priests are decreed by the covenant of salt, therefore upon all your offerings you shall offer salt.”
With all your offerings you shall offer salt—Even those that were not to be eaten, as well as those that were; as the burnt offering of the herd, of the flock, and of fowls, and their several parts; all were obliged to be salted that were offered, excepting wine, blood, wood, and incense; hence there was a room in the temple where salt was laid up for this purpose, called “the salt room”; and which was provided by the congregation, and not by a private person; our Lord has reference to this law in Mar 9:49 the Gentiles always made use of salt in their sacrifices.
14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. MAT 5:13-14