it to bow down his head as a bulrush?" &c. "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burthens" (or rather the bundles of the yoke, אגרות מוטה plainly referring to the severe and unjust bondage of the poor) "and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?"—"Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and to bring the poor that are cast out" (or rather to bring the poor that are reduced, or depressed, viz. as it were by tyrants; for so the word מרורום seems more properly to signify in this place) "to thy house?" &c. Compare this with Deut. xxiii. 15, 16. And he warned them of the divine justice that would pursue them for their oppression and tyrannical treatment of the poor.
"The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people! The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients (or senators) of his people, and the princes thereof; for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses! What mean ye that you beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor?" saith the Lord of hosts! Isa. iii. 13 to 15.
The wicked practices whereby the Israelites reduced their poor brethren to slavery are described by the prophet Amos: "Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, saying, when will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the Ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes" (that is, comparatively speaking, at a most contemptible price ! whereby we may presume that slave markets were not so notoriously established at that time as at the present; and that the bidders were few, though the oppressed were many) "yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of" these works. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein ?" &c. Amos viii. 4 to 8.
Here is a solemn appeal from God to the human
