Keeping Them Down

For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a person and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor follow other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Jeremiah 7:5-7 NASB

Not oppress – Know your place!  Play your part!  Don’t get uppity!  And, by the way, I’ll decide what’s right for you!  When you read this verse, did you think “oppressed” had anything to do with elitist attitude?  Probably not, but it does.  The Hebrew word is עָשַׁק (ʿāšaq) oppress, get deceitfully, defraud, do violence.^[1]  As you can see, it’s not just about violent behavior.  We might be better informed to translate the text as “do not abuse,” because abuse covers all the behaviors associated with ʿāšaq. 

The verbal root ʿāšaq is concerned with acts of abuse of power or authority, the burdening, trampling, and crushing of those lower in station. Important synonyms in the semantic range of ʿāšaq include: gāzal “to deprive, take by force;” dākāʾ (Niphal) “to be crushed;” yānâ “to be violent, to oppress;” lāḥaṣ “to crowd, oppress, torment;” ṣārar “to be cramped, oppressed;” rāṣaṣ “to ill-treat, abuse;” and šādad “to devastate, maltreat.”^[2]

Just as man, much-forgiven, is expected by God to respond forgivingly to others, so one, who has been dealt with in extraordinary graciousness by the Master of eternity owes favorable treatment to the defenseless. The proverb explains, “He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker / But he who is gracious to the needy honors Him”^[3]

Now you can appreciate the wider application of this term, and the seriousness of the offense. Whenever someone else not in a place of God-given authority uses power or influence to force, deprive, abuse, or maltreat another person, God Himself is slandered.  Human worth is not a function of role, status, ethnic origin, or geography.  Human worth is granted by, and only granted by, the Creator, and it is to Him that we owe our existence.  Consequently, to treat anyone else in some way that lessens the creative generation of God is to insult God Himself.  For this reason, Jeremiah places enormous emphasis on the behaviors of ʿāšaq.  They should never be found among God’s chosen.

Unfortunately, history demonstrates how little religions care for Jeremiah’s contingency.  God accused Israel of ʿāšaq.  He undoubtedly would say the same about the religious groups that claim to follow Him today.  Humanity defines itself by division and separation, by “us” and “them.” Apparently, those words don’t exist in God’s dictionary.

Topical Index: ʿāšaq, abuse, oppress, Jeremiah 7:5-7

^[1] Allen, R. B. (1999). 1713 עָשַׁק. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 705). Chicago: Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.