Homelessness

Woe, who add house to house, who put field together with field till there is no space left and you alone are settled, in the heart of the land.  Isaiah 5:8  Robert Alter

You alone – Private property and boundaries are at the heart of Israel’s social system.  Since the day the tribes settled in the Land, each family was supposed to have its own space.  Even if the property was used to relieve debt, in the Jubilee it had to be returned to the original owner.  Everyone had somewhere to call home.

Isaiah castigates those who ignore this basic component of Israel’s order.  When the rich consolidate house and fields, they exploit the poor and drive them from their land.  This is social injustice and a violation of God’s ordinance.  It will not go unpunished.  In God’s social order the rich are responsible to ensure that the poor have a home.  Destitution and homelessness are symptoms of social disgrace and a lack of concern by the wealthy for Torah observance.  If God blesses someone with prosperity, power, and property, those blessings come with obligations, and caring for the condition of the poor is one of them.  Homelessness is sin, not for those displaced but for those who let it happen.

If there is any consistent theme in the prophets, it is this: social justice.  A society that allows or condones radical inequality is doomed to collapse.  This does not mean that the biblical world supports Marxist distribution.  In the biblical world there are still rich and poor.  Even Yeshua noted the continual existence of those at the bottom of the economic ladder.  But poor does not mean destitute, impoverished, helpless.  Since the rich are rich because of God’s favor, they have the responsibility to see that everyone has the basic needs.  Welfare in the biblical world was always temporary; just enough to get the person back on his feet and become a contributing member of the society.  There were no permanent refugees.  Accumulation entailed distribution.  What I have in excess is intended to be the provision for those in need.  Big barns don’t matter.  You might consider what the world will look like in the Millennial Age.  It will certainly cause a reshuffling of the economic order of things.  I don’t think the family Saud will enjoy their $1.4 trillion (yes, that’s right: $1,400,000,000,000) assets when 2.5 billion people survive on less than $1.00 a day.  God’s social system has economic implications.

“You alone” is the real issue, isn’t it?  We’re familiar with the Hebrew root bādad.  It is an important word in the Jacob/Jabbok story.  “You alone” means you separated and isolated.  In this case, a deliberate disconnection from the obligation to others.  A social rung removed from the rest of the world.  We know the names of those at the top, so we’re inclined to apply Isaiah’s imprecation to the elite.  But, of course, the difference between “well-off” and “poor” is relative.  I am well-off.  I suspect that anyone who reads this is in the same general category.  Most of the world isn’t, and perhaps there is little you can do about the children under the bridge, but there is something you can do about your neighbor.  There is something you can do about the injustice of a social system that leaves many homeless, not by choice but by legal maneuvering.  That you can protest.  That you can prevent.  And for those you can remember “the least of these.”

Topical Index: poor, you alone, bādad, social justice, Isaiah 5:8