Injustice

Where Justice is the standard, injustice is the violation: the bribed verdict, the wrested judgment, the false report, the trampled poor. Nave gathers the canon's specific indictments — the cases where the law's bench, the trader's scale, the ruler's hand, or the witness's tongue is bent against the weak — and the corresponding promise that Yahweh sees and answers. The texts run from the Book of the Covenant through the Wisdom literature, the prophets, and out to the Apocalypse.

Oppression of the Sojourner, Widow, and Fatherless

The Mosaic law marks four kinds of person whose treatment is the test of a society's justice: the sojourner, the widow, the fatherless, and the poor. The Book of the Covenant ties the rule to Israel's own history of being wronged: "And a sojourner you will not wrong, neither will you oppress him: for you⁺ were sojourners in the land of Egypt" (Ex 22:21). The next line names the widow and orphan: "You⁺ will not afflict any widow, or fatherless child" (Ex 22:22). Deuteronomy applies the same redemption-rationale to the court: "You will not wrest the justice [due] to the fatherless sojourner, nor take the widow's raiment for a pledge; but you will remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and [the Speech of] Yahweh your God redeemed you from there: therefore I command you to do this thing" (De 24:17-18). The Ebal liturgy carries the same rule under public curse: "Cursed be he who wrests the justice [due] to the sojourner, fatherless, and widow. And all the people will say, Amen" (De 27:19).

The Psalter and the prophets place these same four figures at the center of God's judicial concern. "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, Is God in his holy habitation" (Ps 68:5). Isaiah's opening corrective is in the same vocabulary: "learn to do well; seek justice, correct oppression, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" (Is 1:17). And Jeremiah's royal charge: "Thus says Yahweh: Execute⁺ justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place" (Je 22:3) — followed by the warning that the Davidic line's continuance hangs on it (Je 22:4-5). Sirach repeats the duty in Hellenistic dress: "Be as a father to the fatherless, And in the place of a husband to widows. And God will call you son, And will be gracious to you" (Sir 4:10); and the divine response: "He does not ignore the cry of the orphan, Nor the widow when she pours out her complaint" (Sir 35:17).

Wresting Judgment in the Court

The most-named injustice in Nave's entry is the perverted verdict — the judge who twists the law to the wrong side. The Book of the Covenant catalogs the procedural failures: "You will not take up a false report: don't put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. You will not follow a multitude to do evil; neither will you speak in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to pervert [justice]: neither will you favor a poor man in his cause" (Ex 23:1-3); and: "You will not pervert the justice [due] to your poor in his cause. Keep far from a false matter; and do not slay the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked" (Ex 23:6-7). The Holiness Code states the rule positively: "You⁺ will do no unrighteousness in judgment: you will not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness you will judge your associate" (Le 19:15). Deuteronomy compresses the whole charge into a slogan: "You will not wrest justice: you will not show favoritism; neither will you take a bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous. That which is altogether just you will follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you" (De 16:19-20).

The Psalter brings the address straight to the judges: "How long will you⁺ judge unjustly, And respect the persons of the wicked? Selah" (Ps 82:2). Ecclesiastes catches the failure dryly: "And moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there" (Ec 3:16). The Lamenter sets the same offence under the divine eye in three lines: "To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, To turn aside the right of a [noble] man before the face of the Most High, To subvert man in his cause, the Lord does not approve" (La 3:34-36).

The cardinal forensic reversal — calling guilt innocent and innocence guilty — is named with the strongest possible verdict in the wisdom register: "He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are disgusting to Yahweh" (Pr 17:15). The same instinct drives the proverb on monarchic temperance: "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; Nor for princes to desire strong drink. Or else they will drink, and forget the law, And pervert the justice [due] to any who is afflicted" (Pr 31:4-5).

False Witness

The witness's tongue is the hinge of the whole forensic system, and the canon repeatedly fixes the rule. Sinai's seventh word is "You will not bear false witness against your fellow man" (Ex 20:16); the Book of the Covenant repeats it under the heading of the bench (Ex 23:1, above). Deuteronomy specifies the procedure when one is suspected: "If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing" (De 19:16) — the case is then carried to the priests and judges with the lex talionis attached.

The wisdom register turns it over and over. "A false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers" (Pr 6:19). "He who utters truth shows forth righteousness; But a false witness, deceit" (Pr 12:17). "A false witness will not be unpunished; And he who utters lies will perish" (Pr 19:9). "Don't be a witness against your fellow man without cause; And do not deceive with your lips" (Pr 24:28). And the picture-proverb: "A man who bears false witness against his fellow man Is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow" (Pr 25:18). Sirach numbers the false accusation among the things he most fears: "Of three things my heart is afraid, And concerning a fourth I am in great fear: Slander in the city, an assembly of the multitude, And a false accusation; worse than death are they all" (Sir 26:5). Paul puts the prohibition under the love-command: "for this... and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, You will love your fellow man as yourself" (Ro 13:9).

Unjust Weights and Unjust Gain

Injustice is not confined to the courtroom; it sits in the trader's scale and the lender's interest. The Holiness Code extends the same rule to the marketplace: "You⁺ will do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, you⁺ will have: I am Yahweh your⁺ God, who brought you⁺ out of the land of Egypt" (Le 19:35-36). The proverb names the redirective fate of usurious gain: "He who augments his substance by interest and increase, Gathers it for him who has pity on the poor" (Pr 28:8). The Baptist makes the same instruction directly to soldiers in office: "Extort from no man by violence, neither accuse [anyone] wrongfully; and be content with your⁺ wages" (Lu 3:14). And the principle generalizes: "He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much: and he who is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much" (Lu 16:10).

The Prophet's Indictment

When the bench, the bazaar, and the throne all bend the same way, the prophet stands to indict. Amos draws the charge sheet against an entire propertied class: "Forasmuch therefore as you⁺ trample on the poor, and take exactions from him of wheat: you⁺ have built houses of cut stone, but you⁺ will not dwell in them; you⁺ have planted pleasant vineyards, but you⁺ will not drink their wine. For I know how manifold are your⁺ transgressions, and how mighty are your⁺ sins--you⁺ who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the gate [from their right]" (Am 5:11-12). The Preacher's observation is laconic where Amos is incandescent: "If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter: for one higher than the high regards; and there are higher than those" (Ec 5:8). Isaiah names the stubbornness of the unrepentant wrongdoer even under favorable circumstances: "Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see the splendor of Yahweh" (Is 26:10).

The wronged answer back in the canon's own voice. Job's protest from the ash-heap: "My face is red with weeping, And on my eyelids is the shadow of death; Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure" (Job 16:16-17). His oath that he never used position against subordinates is one of the canon's clearest statements of the equality-of-creation argument: "If I have despised the cause of my male slave or of my female slave, When they contended with me; What then shall I do when God rises up? And when he visits, what shall I answer him? Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?" (Job 31:13-15). The wronged psalmist asks the higher court directly: "Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: Oh deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man" (Ps 43:1).

Divine Reply

The other side of every Nave-cited injustice is the answering action of God. Yahweh's character itself rules out the pattern: "Yahweh in the midst of her is righteous; he will not do iniquity; every morning he brings his justice to light, he does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame" (Zep 3:5). The standing promise of intervention is Psalm 12: "Because of the oppression of the poor, because of the sighing of the needy, Now I will arise, says Yahweh; I will set him in the safety he pants for" (Ps 12:5). The divine bench takes up the cause where the human bench has dropped it: "Rescue the poor and needy: Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked" (Ps 82:4). Sirach sets the same picture in liturgical compass: "He will not respect the person of the poor, But hearkens to the supplications of the distressed" (Sir 35:16); "The cry of the poor passes through the clouds, And until it reaches [God] it does not rest; It will not cease until God visits" (Sir 35:21).

The wisdom voice insists that the wicked man's gain is short-lived: "When [a] wicked man dies, [his] expectation will perish; And the hope of iniquity perishes" (Pr 11:7). And the moral incompatibility is mutual: "An unjust man is disgusting to the righteous; And he who is upright in the way is disgusting to the wicked" (Pr 29:27). Sirach's address to the would-be defrauder of the poor names the corresponding crime: "[As] one who slays a son in the sight of his father, [So] is he who brings a sacrifice from the belongings of the poor. The bread of the needy is the life of the poor, He who deprives him of it is a man of blood" (Sir 34:24-25).

Final Reversal

The Apocalypse closes the question with a verdict that fixes the two trajectories: "He who is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still: and he who is filthy, let him be made filthy still: and he who is righteous, let him do righteousness still: and he who is holy, let him be made holy still" (Re 22:11). The line that runs through Nave's entry — the wrested verdict, the trampled poor, the false witness, the unjust scale — terminates on this division. The bench under which Nave's catalog finally places these acts is not the human one but the upper bench, where the law of justice is the character of the judge.

For the corresponding positive treatment — Yahweh as the just God, the magistrate's charge, the king's office, the cry of the oppressed in the Psalter, and the apostolic ethic of impartiality — see Justice. Adjacent entries in Nave's index are courts, dishonesty, and fraud.