עָנִי

Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the poor and needy.

She opens her arms to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.

What advantage, then, has the wise man over the fool? What gain comes to the poor man who knows how to conduct himself before others?

The LORD brings this charge against the elders and leaders of His people: “You have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses.

Why do you crush My people and grind the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

…to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.

Cry aloud, O Daughter of Gallim! Listen, O Laishah! O wretched Anathoth!

What answer will be given to the envoys of that nation? “The LORD has founded Zion, where His afflicted people will find refuge.”

Feet trample it down—the feet of the oppressed, the steps of the poor.

The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; break forth in song, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, and He will have compassion on His afflicted ones.

Therefore now hear this, you afflicted one, drunken, but not with wine.

“O afflicted city, lashed by storms, without solace, surely I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires.

Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.

He took up the cause of the poor and needy, and so it went well with him. Is this not what it means to know Me?” declares the LORD.

Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.

He oppresses the poor and needy; he commits robbery and does not restore a pledge. He lifts his eyes to idols; he commits abominations.

He withholds his hand from harming the poor and takes no interest or usury. He keeps My ordinances and follows My statutes. Such a man will not die for his father’s iniquity. He will surely live.

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.

With his own spear You pierced his head, when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though ready to secretly devour the weak.

But I will leave within you a meek and humble people, and they will trust in the name of the LORD.

Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took for myself two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock.

It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD.