Once again I’m going to make an effort to start writing / blogging regularly. This post is from a paper I wrote for an Old Testament class at Wycliffe College. The prompt was as follows: Discuss God’s concern for the outsider (the poor, the widow, the orphan, the marginalized, etc.) in Genesis–2 Kings.
Here is Part 2: The Marginalized and the Outsider in the Law
The law texts in Leviticus and Deuteronomy provide a rich but also ambiguous source regarding the marginalized and outsider. The foundation of the Torah are the Ten Commandments and the shema. (See Deut. 5:1 – 6:25). The shema commands Israel to “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deut. 6:5 (NIV)). The shema is repeated by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, but with the emendation that followers of Jesus must also “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22: 37-40; Luke 10:27 (NIV)). This emendation seems to be taken from Leviticus 19:18: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.” (NIV). The ambiguity here is that Deuteronomy 7 includes a herem warfare text that seems to exclude certain “outsiders” from the category of Israel’s “neighbors”:
When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations —the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy….
(Deut. 7:1-2 (NIV)). Leviticus 19:18, both in its own context and in relation to the text from Deuteronomy, seems to limit reciprocal “love” to relations among “your people,” that is, among Israelites.
There are a variety of approaches to these and other herem texts in the Hebrew Scriptures. None of them are entirely satisfactory. Within the context of the Deuteronomic and Levitical law texts, however, it is worth noting that the narrative frame represents Israel as the “marginalized” or “outsider” people among the nations. Like the proto-historical narratives, the Law and the conquest narratives depict God graciously making space for His people amidst the violence, idolatry and sin of the nations, leading ultimately to the redemption of all the nations from idolatry and violence.
The more “famous” examples of concern for the marginalized and outsider in the Torah are the Jubilee, debt, tithe, and gleanings laws. (See Leviticus 25:8-55). The Jubilee law set aside one year out of every fifty years, during which a variety of legal obligations would be reset. For example, the law provided for bonded labor in the event an Israelite became impoverished. If an Israelite became the bonded servant of another Israelite, the term of bondage could last only until the Jubilee year. (See Leviticus 25:39-42). If an Israelite became the bonded servant of an “alien or temporary resident” – that is, a non-Israelite living in the land – the bondage could be redeemed for a price based on the number of years until the next Jubilee times the rate to cover his work with a hired laborer, and in any event the term of bondage would terminate automatically in the Jubilee year. (See Leviticus 25:47-55). The Jubilee law, however, did not exempt non-Israelites from perpetual slavery. (See Leviticus 25:44-46).
The seven-year debt laws provided that loans made to Israelites must be canceled in an amnesty year as part of a seven-year cycle. (Deuteronomy 15:1-3). The debt law in Deuteronomy specified that “there should be no poor among you” and that Israelites should lend freely to other Israelites in need even if the cancellation year is near. (Deuteronomy 15:4-11). Once again, however, the debt laws did not apply to non-Israelite debtors. (Deuteronomy 15:3). A seven-year period also applied to bonded labor, although this was a rolling period that allowed at least six years of service. (Deuteronomy 15:12-18). This rule seems to conflict with the Jubilee law in Leviticus, since according to Deuteronomy a Hebrew bond servant must be set free after six years of service, while the Jubilee year would arrive only once every fifty years. (Deuteronomy 15:12-18). If these laws were intended to work together, it may be that the Jubilee release would apply to bonded servants who pledged to remain in service notwithstanding the seventh-year release. (See Deuteronomy 15:16-17).
The tithe laws in Deuteronomy required an annual tithe of one-tenth of each person’s produce. (Deuteronomy 26:1-15). This law included a three-year cycle according to which, in every third year, the tithe would be given “to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.” (Deuteronomy 26:12). The gleanings law stated that the edges of the field should be left unharvested and that this portion together with the gleanings (parts of the harvest that had fallen to the ground) should be left “for the poor and the alien.” (Leviticus 23:22).
These provisions illustrate the Torah’s concern that all of God’s people have a share in the land. Contrary to some modern attitudes about poverty, there is no suggestion in these laws that individual poverty is the result of moral fault. In fact, Deuteronomy 15:11 states that “[t]here will always be poor people in the land,” which reflect an understanding that bad things can happen to anyone and that the community is responsible to care for those who are experiencing hard times. Moreover, the tithe and gleanings laws recognize the often precarious status of “aliens,” that is, of non-Israelites, and include them in the welfare system. At the same time, the bonded labor laws provided redemption only to Israelites, and the Law also required herem warfare against what we might today call the “native peoples” of the land. The Law’s provision for the “marginalized” and “outsiders” therefore reflects a framework that is deeply conditioned by the historical and theological contexts of these texts as witnesses to God’s dealings with Israel.