When you beat the olives from your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs a second time. What is left shall be for the resident alien, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When you gather the grapes from your vineyard, you shall not glean the grapes that you leave behind. They shall be for the resident alien, for the fatherless, and for the widow. You shall remember that you were once slaves in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this.

You shall not lend anything on interest to your fellow countryman. To a foreigner you may lend on interest, but to your fellow countryman you shall not lend on interest, that Jehovah your God may bless you in all that you undertake.

If there be with you a poor man, one of your fellow countrymen, in any of your cities in the land which Jehovah your God gives you, you shall not be hardhearted nor refuse to lend to your poor brother; you shall surely be generous to him, and lend him sufficient for his needs. Beware lest this base thought come into your mind, 'The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,' and you turn a deaf ear to your poor brother and give him nothing, and he cry to Jehovah against you, and you be guilty. You shall surely give to him, and your heart shall not be unwilling when you give to him, because for this Jehovah your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you undertake. For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, 'You shall surely be generous to your brother, to your needy, and to the poor in your land.'

LEVITICUS

156. UPRIGHt Dealing iN ALL BUSINESS RELATIONS

You shall do nothing that is unfair either through the law courts or with rule or weight or measure.

'You shall use accurate scales, accurate weights, and accurate dry and liquid measures. If any one sins and breaks faith with Jehovah by deceiving his neighbor in regard to a deposit, or something committed to his keeping, or by robbing or defrauding his neighbor, or if he finds something which was lost and denies it and perjures himself, if by doing any one of these things a man has sinned and so is guilty, he shall restore that which he took by robbery, or the thing which he obtained by fraud, or the deposit which was entrusted to him, or the lost thing which he found, or anything about which he swore falsely. He shall restore it in full and shall add to it a fifth more on the day that he is found guilty; he shall give it to its rightful owner.

157. MAN'S DUTIES TO HIS NEIGHBOR

You shall not deal falsely with one another.
You shall not lie to one another.

You shall not swear falsely in my name.
You shall not oppress nor rob your neighbor.
You shall not curse the deaf.

You shall not put a stumbling-block before the blind. You shall not favor the powerful, but you shall justly judge your neighbor.

You shall not spread slanderous reports among your people.

You shall not seek the life-blood of your neighbor.. You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart.

You shall warn your neighbor and not incur sin on his account.

You shall not take vengeance nor bear a grudge against the members of your race.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You shall arise before the hoary head and honor the person of an old man.

If an alien resides in your land, you shall do him no wrong. You shall treat him as a native, and you shall love him as yourself.

THE PROPHETS

AMOS

THE WORDS OF AMOS, ONE OF THE SHEPHERDS FROM TEKOA, AND THE THINGS THAT HE SAW CONCERNING NORTHERN ISRAEL DURING THE REIGN OF JEROBOAM THE SON OF JOASH, TWO YEARS BEFORE THE EARTHQUAKE

158. THE INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCES OF CRUELTY AND SOCIAL OPPRESSION

Jehovah has said:

Because of three crimes of Damascus,
For four, I will not avert it,

For they crushed the dwellers in Gilead
With threshing sledges of iron.

I will send into Hazael's house fire;
It shall devour Benhadad's palaces.
I will break the defense of Damascus,
I will cut off Bikath-Aven's citizens,
And Beth-Eden's sceptre-bearer,

And to Kir shall the Arameans be exiled.

Jehovah has spoken.

Jehovah has said:

Because of three crimes of Gaza,

For four, I will not avert it,

For they carried whole villages captive,
And delivered them over to Edom.
I will send into Gaza's walls fire,
And it shall devour her palaces.

I will cut off from Ashdod its citizens,
And Ashkelon's sceptre-bearer;

I will turn my hand against Ekron,
And all the Philistines shall perish.

Jehovah has spoken.

Jehovah has said:

Because of three crimes of the Ammonites,
For four, I will not avert it,

For they ripped up the mothers of Gilead,
To make their own land the greater.

I will set Rabbah's walls afire,

And the flames shall devour her palaces,
With shouts on the day of battle,

And a tempest on the day of the whirlwind;
And their king shall go into exile,
He and his nobles together.

Jehovah has spoken.

Jehovah has said:

Because of three crimes of Israel,
For four, I will not avert it,

For they sell the upright for money,
And the poor for a pair of shoes;

On the head of the needy they trample,
And pervert the cause of the humble.
A man and his father go in to the maid,
And thus dishonor my holy name!
Upon garments taken in pledge
They stretch out by every altar,
And the wine of those who are fined

They drink in the house of their God!

Yet it was I who brought you from the land of Egypt,
And led you through the wilderness for forty years,
And brought you here to inherit the Amorite land,