SALT & LIGHT God versus Oppression: God calls out the oppression of the helpless

1 Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,

and the writers who keep writing oppression,

Rashi

Iniquitous decrees—Notes of injustice, forged notes.

Letters—Heb. מְכַתְּבִים. This is Arabic, like מִכְתָּבִים in Hebrew.

2 to turn aside the needy from justice

and to rob the poor of my people of their right,

that widows may be their spoil,

and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

John Gill

To turn aside the needy from justice—Such laws being made as discouraged them from any application for justice; and, when they did, were harassed with such long, vexatious, and expensive suits, as obliged them to desist, and the cause being generally given against them, and for the rich:

And to rob the poor of my people of their right—For not to do justice to the poor is the same as to rob and plunder them, and take away by force what of right belongs to them; wherefore it follows:

That widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey—Who have none to protect and defend them, and whose protectors judges ought to be, in imitation of God, whom civil magistrates represent, who is the judge of the widows and the fatherless; and therefore this is observed as an aggravation of their sin, which was very great indeed: it is very wicked in a judge to pervert the judgment of the poor and needy, the widow and the fatherless, contrary to laws that are made by God and men; but to make and prescribe wicked and unrighteous laws, that wickedness may be framed, and mischief committed by a law, that the poor and the needy, the widows and fatherless, may be injured under colour and pretence of law and justice, is the height of injustice. See Psa 94:20-21.

Rashi

To turn aside through the false notes, the poor from the legal rights due them.

3 What will you do on the day of punishment,

in the ruin that will come from afar?

To whom will you flee for help,

and where will you leave your wealth? ISA 10:1-3

Rashi

On the day of punishment when the Holy One, blessed be he, visits upon you your iniquities.

In the ruin—Heb. וּלְשׁוֹאָה, an expression of ruin.

To whom will you flee for help—The Holy One, blessed be he, will afford you no help.

And where will you leave all the wealth you are accumulating from robbery, when you go into exile?

God sits in judgment on those who intentionally design decrees and writings for their gain, but who oppress the poor and vulnerable. Because of those actions, God says on the day of punishment, there will be no one who extends help, and nowhere to keep their wealth (Isa 10:3). How should your decisions consider the needs of the poor and vulnerable? Why is this an important consideration for us as God’s people?

And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. 1KI 21:13

Sanhedrin 48b:10

The Gemara raises a difficulty: Granted, according to the one who says that the property of those executed by the king belongs to the king, that is the reason that it is written that Jezebel arranged for witnesses to falsely testify that “Naboth cursed God and the king” (1Ki 21:13). Since Naboth cursed the king, Ahab could execute him and seize his property. But according to the one who says that the property of those executed by the king belongs to their heirs, why do I need the testimony that Naboth cursed the king? It would have sufficed for the witnesses to testify that he cursed God, in which case he would have been executed by the court, and Ahab would have taken possession of the vineyard as his heir.

Your princes are rebels

and companions of thieves.

Everyone loves a bribe

and runs after gifts.

They do not bring justice to the fatherless,

and the widow’s cause does not come to them. ISA 1:23

Rashi

Rebels—Deviating from the straight path.

And runs after gifts—This word is similar to the Talmudic תַּשְׁלוּמִין. Jonathan paraphrases: One man says to another, Do me a favor in my case, and I will repay you in your case. This refers to a judge who was a robber, and the robbery victim complains about him before another judge. This one says to him, Declare me innocent today, and I will repay you when they complain about you before me. This is the meaning of running after gifts.

And the widow’s cause does not come to them—The widow comes to complain, and the fatherless is coming out, when this one meets him and asks him, What did you accomplish in your case? He replies, All day long I toiled at work, but I did not accomplish anything. And this one turns around and says, If this one, who is a man, did not accomplish anything, surely I will not. This is the meaning of, “they do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them” at all.

3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.”

Rashi

They have come to me from a far country—This is one of three people whom the Holy One, blessed be he, tested and found to be a chamber pot: Cain, Hezekiah, and Balaam. Hezekiah should have replied, “You are a prophet of the Omnipresent. Yet you ask me?” Instead, he commenced to become haughty, and said, “They have come to me from a far country.” Therefore, he was punished, and because he rejoiced over them and fed them on his table. Similarly, Balaam, to whom he said, “Who are these men with you?” (Num 22:9) And he replied and said, “Balak the son of Zippor sent them to me.” Similarly, Cain, to whom he said, “Where is your brother Abel?” (Gen 4:9) He should have replied, “Lord of the Universe, are not all hidden things revealed to you?” As it is stated in Tanhuma.

6 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord.

Rashi

Nothing shall be left—You shall be paid in kind, corresponding to “There is nothing (v. 4).” (I.e., 

Hezekiah would be punished for showing off all his treasures, by having all those treasures carried off to Babylon.)

7 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. ISA 39:3, 6-7

Rashi

And some of your own sons—Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” JOH 19:6

John Gill

When the chief priests and the officers saw him—In this piteous condition, in his mock dress, and having on him all the marks of cruel usage, enough to have moved an heart of stone: and though they were the principal men of the priesthood, and who made great pretensions to religion and piety, and the officers were their servants and attendants, and all of them used to sacred employments; which might have been thought would have at least influenced them to the exercise of humanity and compassion to fellow creatures; yet instead of being affected with this sight, and wrought upon by it, to have agreed to his release, as Pilate hoped,

They cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!”—Which was done in a very noisy and clamorous way; and the repetition of their request shows their malignity, vehemence, and impatience; and remarkable it is, that they should call for, and desire that kind of death the Scriptures had pointed out, that the Messiah should die, and which was predicted by Christ himself.

Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him”—This was not leave to do it, as appears from the reason he gives, in which the innocence of Christ is again asserted; nor did the Jews take it in this light, as is evident from their reply; and it is clear, that after this Pilate thought he had a power either to release or crucify him; and he did afterwards seek to release him; and the Jews made a fresh request to crucify him; upon which he was delivered to be crucified: but this was said in a way of indignation, and as abhorring the action; and is an ironical concession, and a bitter sarcasm upon them, that men that professed so much religion and sanctity, could be guilty of such iniquity, as to desire the death of one that no fault could be found in; and therefore, if such were their consciences, for his part, he desired to have no concern in so unrighteous an action; but if they would, they must even do it themselves.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1PE 2:12

John Gill

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable—To have the conduct honorable, is to provide things honorable in the sight of God, and among men; to order the conduct aright, according to the law of God, which is a rule of walk and conduct, and as becomes the gospel of Christ; and which was the more, and rather to be attended to, because these converted Jews were “among the Gentiles,” that knew not God; idolaters, and unbelievers, profane sinners, who were watching for their halting, and that they might take an advantage against them, and the gospel, and the religion they professed, from their conversations:

So that when they speak against you as evildoers—Charging them with the grossest immoralities, as the Gentiles did the Christians in the first ages; which appears evidently from the apologies of Tertullian, Jnstin Martyr, and others; though it seems that the Jewish converts are here intended, who were accused by the Gentiles of seditious principles and practices, and of acting contrary to the laws of civil government, refusing to yield subjection to Gentile magistrates, and obedience to Gentile masters; and hence the apostle, in some following verses, enlarges on those duties, and which he exhorts them to attend unto, that they might put to silence the ignorance of such foolish accusers: and

That they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation—Or “trial,” or “examination,” as the Syriac version renders it; which may be understood either of human or divine visitation, which seems most likely, this must either design a visitation by way of judgment, or of mercy; for as the Jews say, there is “a visitation,” for good, and a visitation for evil: God sometimes visits in a way of punishment for sin, and sometimes in away of grace, for the good and welfare of men; and then the sense is, that when wicked men take notice of and observe the good works of the saints, their civil, honest, and orderly conversation, they shall glorify God on that account, who has enabled them to perform them; and acknowledge the goodness of them, and the wrong judgment they have passed upon them, and the ill measure they have measured out to them; and this will be, either when God visits them in a way of wrath, as at the day of judgment, or at the time of some temporal calamity before, or when he visits them in a way of mercy, calls them by his grace, and effectually works upon them by his Spirit: the same argument for the performance of good works is used by Christ, in Mat 5:16.