Social Justice and the Hebrew Prophets

This article shows how prophetic writings of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible condemn social injustice in their context and how they offer unfulfilled visions of social justice. It also argues for their relevance to modern society. Selected passages from the books of Amos and Isaiah, together with shorter quotations from Micah and Jeremiah, are presented in translation with comments drawing out their meaning both for their original context and for modern Western capitalist society. Attention is drawn to the rhetoric of the prophets as contesting the rhetoric of the oppressors and unmasking their lies and misleading descriptions. Highly diverse visions of the just society are shown to raise questions of implementation that the prophets do not address. It is pointed out that the general biblical view, shared by the prophets, that conduct, good or bad, always receives its appropriate reward, does not seem to correspond to experience. The conclusion is that the value of the prophetic writings lies simply in their encouragement to respond to inhumanity with moral outrage, and to maintain evocative images of the just society.