Biblical Matters

The city gate was the place of public justice and honour (Job 29:7-17); James pictures a congregation where the rich receive the best seats (Jas 2:1-4).

“The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts” (Jas 5:4); Elihu says oppressors “caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard” (Job 34:28).

Job wore justice “like a robe” (Job 29:14) and heard the complaints of his own servants because “Did not He who made me … make them?” (Job 31:13-15). Yet in suffering he cries “there is no justice” (Job 19:7).

Justice is both personal (paying fairly, hearing complaints) and a matter of trusting God with wrongs we cannot right.

Job’s oath of innocence (Job 31) lists deeds of purity, honesty, generosity and justice. James argues that faith “if it does not result in action, is dead” (Jas 2:17), citing Abraham and Rahab (Jas 2:21-25).

God executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the foreigner — the character James calls “pure religion” to imitate (Jas 1:27).

“Defend the fatherless, plead the case of the widow” — prophetic form of Jas 1:27.

צֶ֫דֶק tse.deq H6664G righteousness; צְדָקָה tse.da.qah H6666 righteousness; δικαιοσύνη dikaiosunē G1343 righteousness; δίκαιος dikaios G1342 just. ṣedeq / ṣədāqâ denote what is right and just, both conduct and legal vindication; dikaiosynē is righteousness and justice.

Hospitality and justice define righteousness in both stories: Abraham receives strangers (Gen 18:2-8); Job says “the stranger did not lodge in the street” (Job 31:32).

Abraham must teach “righteousness and justice”; Job lists care for the poor, widow and orphan.