Proverbs 28:3-5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
3 One who is poor and extorts from the lowly
is a devastating rain that leaves no food.[a]
4 Those who abandon instruction[b] praise the wicked,
but those who keep instruction oppose them.
5 The evil understand nothing of justice,[c]
but those who seek the Lord understand everything.
Footnotes
- 28:3 The reference may be to tax farmers who collected taxes and took a commission. The collectors’ lack of wealth was the cause of their oppression of poor farmers. They are like a rain too violent to allow crops to grow.
- 28:4 Instruction: torah; the word is used both for the teaching of the wise and the law of Moses.
- 28:5 Understanding nothing of justice plays on the twofold sense of justice as righteousness and as punishment that comes on the wicked. On the other hand, those who seek the Lord understand everything, i.e., that the Lord punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous (themselves).
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