THE TREATMENT OF INFERIORS IN ISRAEL. 1
A man shall be :
As a hiding-place from the wind,
As a covert from the tempest,
As streams of water in a dry region,
As the shadow of a great rock
In a weary land.
Isa. 32:2.
Thus does one prophet suggest what a man of resources should be to those in need of protection. There are always those in times of stress, when society is disorganized, as was the case in the writer's day, who need a hiding-place from evil men, a refuge from calamity, or a retreat in which they can recuperate their native strength. Such a hiding-place, such a refuge, such a retreat, he would have the strong and resourceful man to be to the unprotected. It is worthy of note that he used almost the same words with which upon another occasion he spoke of Jehovah's protection :
For thou hast been a stronghold to the poor,
A stronghold to the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm,
A shadow from the heat,
When the blast of the terrible ones
Is as a storm which throws down a wall.
Isa. 25:4.
In another place the same prophet declares that the righteous man, the man whose fast is acceptable to Jehovah, is one who brings the poor who have been cast out into his own home (58:7). He asserts further that his ideal man should clothe the naked, as a part of his work of mercy as a protector of the needy (58:7). Another prophet who gives us a picture of his conception of the just man declares that he, among other things, fails not to cover the naked with a garment (Ezek. 18:7, 16). So, too, the first prophet mentions the feeding of the hungry as
1 This paper is one of a series of papers soon to appear in a volume on The Social Teaching of the Prophets.
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