3:15 Why do you crush my people
and grind the faces of the poor?” 1
The sovereign Lord who commands armies 2 has spoken.
14:30 The poor will graze in my pastures; 3
the needy will rest securely.
But I will kill your root by famine;
it will put to death all your survivors. 4
29:19 The downtrodden will again rejoice in the Lord;
the poor among humankind will take delight 5 in the Holy One of Israel. 6
32:7 A deceiver’s methods are evil; 7
he dreams up evil plans 8
to ruin the poor with lies,
even when the needy are in the right. 9
1 sn The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s outrage at what the leaders have done to the poor. He finds it almost unbelievable that they would have the audacity to treat his people in this manner.
2 tn Heb “the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” On the title “the Lord who commands armies,” see the note at 1:9.
sn The use of this title, which also appears in v. 1, forms an inclusio around vv. 1-15. The speech begins and ends with a reference to “the master, the Lord who commands armies.”
3 tc The Hebrew text has, “the firstborn of the poor will graze.” “Firstborn” may be used here in an idiomatic sense to indicate the very poorest of the poor. See BDB 114 s.v. בְּכוֹר. The translation above assumes an emendation of בְּכוֹרֵי (bÿkhorey, “firstborn of”) to בְּכָרַי (bekharay, “in my pastures”).
4 tn Heb “your remnant” (so NAB, NRSV).
5 tn Or “will rejoice” (NIV, NCV, NLT).
6 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
7 tn Heb “as for a deceiver, his implements [or “weapons”] are evil.”
8 tn Or “he plans evil things”; NIV “he makes up evil schemes.”
9 tn Heb “to ruin the poor with words of falsehood, even when the needy speak what is just.”