Bible on Poverty

He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.

They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.

And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.

For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.

They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.

Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.

Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.

Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.

Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:

For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?

They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.

The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.

A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.

Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill;

She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.

For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.

He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.

The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.

Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge:

The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:

He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.

Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.

The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.

When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

Hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination,

The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.

Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:

And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

Both low and high, rich and poor, together.

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.