We are nearing the end of our yearlong Torah reading cycle. Over the last ten months, we have worked our way through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Now, we only have nine chapters left in Deuteronomy. This week’s Torah portion covers Deuteronomy 21:10–25:19. It is named Ki Tetze, which translates to “When you go out.” Of the Torah’s 613 commandments, this portion covers 74 of them. This is more commandments than any other weekly reading.
The long list of laws jumps from wartime rules to family inheritance to animal rights to marriage laws. A significant percentage of the laws address the upstart nation’s public health policies, agricultural standards, and financial guidelines. The sheer volume of laws demonstrates how faith must permeate every aspect of life. Admittedly, plenty of them leave modern readers scratching their heads. Like, what does mixing wool and linen have to do with faithfulness to God. However, some laws clearly call the Israelite nation to a higher ethical order than any other ancient people. Many laws focus on defending people who lacked societal power. The Israelites had to care for the marginalized.
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In Deuteronomy 24, God commands:
Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. (24:14−15).
In the Bible’s most violent moments of destruction, the main offense against God is society’s oppression of the weak. This pattern appears in the stories of Noah’s flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the events preceding the Babylonian exile. God brings his most severe punishments when the outcry of the vulnerable reaches his ears, and he intervenes on their behalf. Every time, this divine intervention is dramatic.
God hears our cries
The Hebrew word used here for “cry” is qara. It is the same word used in certain Psalms of Ascent when the pilgrims cry out to God. For example, Psalm 120:1 says, “In my distress I cry to the Lord, that he may answer me.” Psalm 130:1 says, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” Both verses use forms of qara. The concept of the poor, oppressed, or marginalized crying out to God is a major theological theme throughout Scripture. God promises to hear their cry.
In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, for example, the outcries of the weak reach a desperate pitch. The Bible has a more severe word for cry out than qara. It is tsa’aq. Nahum Sarna, author of Understanding Genesis, defines the Hebrew tsa’aq as “the anguished cry of the oppressed, the agonized plea of the victim for help in some great injustice.” This is an example of when the English translation undermines the Hebrew text. The word outcry hardly carries the same moral outrage as tsa’aq.
Anytime the outcry of the vulnerable—the poor, the orphan, the widow, or the foreigner—reaches God’s ears, he is compelled to radical action. The prophet Ezekiel explains Sodom’s punishment: “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy” (16:49). God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah when the outcry against them became too great.
Once slaves in Egypt
In the Book of Exodus, a new unnamed pharaoh came to power. This ruler did not remember Joseph or the Hebrews’ past loyalty. As the Israelite population rapidly grew, the pharaoh became deeply anxious about national security. He feared the Hebrews would ally with Egypt’s enemies in the event of a war. Driven by this paranoia, he enslaved them. He forced the Hebrew people to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses, and he eventually escalated his oppression by ordering the death of their male infants.
Exodus records, “The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob” (Ex. 2:23).
This moment of God’s intervention on behalf of his suffering people is the entire climax of the Torah, the pivot point that the prophets always refer to. When God instructs the covenant people to treat the foreigner and vulnerable with compassion, he reminds them to recall their own history of being abused slaves in Egypt. In Deuteronomy, Moses warns them that they will soon be the landowners and nation-builders. Power will be in their hands, and they must not abuse it. They must act differently than the Egyptians or other heartless and godless empires. God warns that if they fail to protect the weak among them and the outcries of the poor reach his ears, his anger will blaze forth (Ex. 22:22).
The prophet’s echo
The prophetic books cite social injustice as a primary reason for the destruction of Jerusalem and exile to Babylon. The prophets condemn the oppression of the vulnerable just as often as they condemn idolatry. In fact, God rebukes the nation for their lack of justice far more than he rebukes them for ritual or sacrificial failures. Religious ceremonies meant nothing to God if the worshippers exploit the poor.
Isaiah ministered in the eighth century BCE. In his fifth chapter, he delivers a devastating message. He pronounces:
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
but heard a cry!(Isa. 5:7).
The lack of compassion in society ultimately provokes God’s divine wrath and punishment.
God does not just demand justice in the abstract. God gives practical ways that the Israelites can care for the poor. Moses promises that if the people follow these laws, the outcry of the vulnerable will cease. According to Deuteronomy 24:19, the Israelites must not overharvest their wheat fields. Instead, they must leave forgotten sheaves for the poor to glean. Deuteronomy 24:20 instructs them not to overpick their olive trees. They must leave the remaining fruit for the hungry to share. Furthermore, Deuteronomy 24:17 commands that a creditor must never take the cloak of a widow in pledge. The creditor must have compassion on her plight.
If the nation upholds this standard of justice, the qara or the tsa’aq will not reach the ears of God. God will not be compelled to dramatic action and consequences. Instead, as Deuteronomy 24:19 promises, the Lord will bless the work of their hands. The Israelites will live and thrive in the land. All will be well with them.
Justice in the New Testament
What Deuteronomy 24 is to the Old Testament, James 5 is to the New Testament. More than any other epistle, James focuses heavily on ethical daily conduct and moral discipline. As the brother of Jesus, James drew from the moral core of Jesus’s ministry, teaching the new band of believers how to live according to the ethical worldview he heard preached many times by his brother.
In the final chapter of his letter, James issues a severe warning to wealthy landowners. He says, “Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you” (5:1). Then he points directly back to the labor laws of Moses. James 5:4 explains exactly why God is angry: “Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”
New Testament scholars often debate if these landowners were Christians or just affluent outsiders. But James is writing to a church. He already rebuked the congregation in the second chapter for favoring the rich. It is highly likely that some of these oppressors were part of the local assembly. They claimed to follow Jesus, yet they built their wealth by exploiting vulnerable workers. James calls out this hypocrisy.
He contrasts their lavish lifestyle with the suffering of those laborers: “You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter” (5:5).
The cries of these harvesters in first-century Israel are the same outcry we see in the books of Moses. James reminds his readers that God is the Lord of hosts. When the wealthy exploit the poor, the outcry still reaches his ears, and God will intervene. True faith must produce tangible justice. And when we do offer compassion, mercy, and justice, Jesus sees it the same as if we had acted compassionately directly to him.
I’ll let the words of Jesus end this Bible Fiber. No one could say it better.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you? And the king will answer them, Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me. (Matthew 25:35–40)
That’s it for this week. If you would like to get the study questions that go with the reading, please visit our website at www.thejerusalemconnection.us
Shabbat Shalom
Study Questions
1. The Scope of Holiness This Torah portion contains seventy-four commandments. They address ordinary parts of daily life. These include building a roof parapet, caring for animals, and returning lost items. Why does God care about such minor details of society? How does this extensive list change your view on what it means to live a holy life?
2. Economic Justice and the Vulnerable In Deuteronomy 24, Moses commands the Israelites to leave leftover crops for the poor. He also instructs them to pay workers before sunset. How do these ancient agricultural laws challenge our modern views on wealth and charity? What are some practical ways we can care for the marginalized in our own community?
3. The New Testament Echo The New Testament strongly echoes the justice laws of Moses. James 5 warns wealthy landowners that the cries of their workers have reached the Lord of hosts. Read James 5:1–6 next to Deuteronomy 24:14–15. How does James apply the Torah to the early church? What warning does this hold for Christians today?