1 Earlier forms of this paper have been read at the ISBL/EABS meeting in Vienna in July 2014, and at the Ehrhardt Seminar in the University of Manchester in October 2015. I am grateful to all who offered observations and criticisms on either occasion, and especially to Professor Bernard Jackson, who kindly read through the paper in its penultimate form and made many valuable comments.

2 R.S. Bartlett, Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters: The Model of Hebrew Prophecy in the Ministry of Martin Luther King, Jr., Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center 21, 1993, (10–38), 10.

3 Dictionary of Classical Hebrew under the two respective words; José P. Miranda, Marx and the Bible: A Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression, Maryknoll, NY, 1974; London, 1977 (tr. from Marx y la biblia, Critica a la filosofia de la opresión, Salamanca, 1971), 108–09, nn. 35–38.

4 Gen 18:19; 2 Sam 8:15 (= 1 Chr. 18:14); 1 Kgs 10:9 (= 2 Chr 9:8); Isa 1:21; 1:27; 5:7, 16; 9:6; 16:5; 28:17; 32:1, 16; 33:5; 56:1; 58:2; 59:9, 14; Jer 4:2; 9:23; 22:3, 13, 15b-16; 23:5; 33:15; Ezek 18:5, 19, 21, 27; 33:14, 16, 19; 45:9; Hos 2:21; Amos 5:7, 24; 6:12; Ps 33:5; 36:7; 37:6; 50:6, if emended (אלהימשפט for אלהים שפט [BHS]); 72:1, 2; 89:15; 97:2; 99:4; 106:3; 119:121; Job 8:3; 29:14; 37:23; Prov 1:3; 2:9; 8:20; 16:8; 21:3; Eccl 3:16; 5:7.

5 Gen 18:19; 2 Sam 8:15 (= 1 Chr 18:14); 1 Kgs 10:9 (= 2 Chr 9:8); Isa 9:6; 33:5; Jer 4:2; 9:23; 22:3a, 15b-16; 23:5; 33:15; Ezek 18:5, 19, 21, 27; 33:14, 16, 19; 45:9; Hos 2:21; Ps 33:5; 89:15; 97:2; 99:4; 119:121; Job 37:23; Prov 1:3; 2:9; 21:3; Eccl. 5:7.

6 Isa 1:21; 1:27; 5:7, 16; 16:5; 28:17; 32:1, 16; 56:1; 58:2; 59:8–9a, 14; Jer 22:13; Amos 5:7, 24; 6:12; Ps 36:7; 37:6; 50:6; 72:1, 2; 106:3; Job 8:3; 29:14; Prov 8:20; 16:8; Eccl 3:16.

7 E.g.: J.P. Miranda, Marx and the Bible (above, n. 2), 93; Moshe Weinfeld, Social Justice in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East, Jerusalem/Minneapolis, 1995, 25; H.G.M. Williamson, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 1–27, vol. 1, Isaiah 1–5, ICC, London/New York, 2006, 135; Walter J. Houston, Amos: Justice and Violence (Phoenix Guides to the Old Testament), Sheffield, 2015, 35–36.

8 E.g., M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 25; W.J. Houston, Amos (above, n. 6), 35.

9 H.W. Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 2nd edn, ed. E. Gowers, Oxford, 1965, 245.

10 James Luther Mays, Amos: A Commentary (OTL), London, 1969, 91–93.

11 Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 1–12: A Commentary, Minneapolis, 1991 (tr. from Jesaja 1–12, BKAT 10.1, Neukirchen, 1972), 64.

12 W.J. Houston, Amos (above, n. 6), 35.

13 Cf. M. Weinfeld, Social Justice, and other works above, n. 6.

14 J.P. Miranda, Marx and the Bible (above, n. 2), 93–97 and 108–9, nn. 35–38.

15 J.P. Miranda, Marx and the Bible (above, n. 2), 93.

16 Hans Heinrich Schmid, Gerechtigkeit als Weltordnung: Hintergrund und Geschichte des alttestamentlichen Gerechtigkeitsbegriffes, Tübingen, 1968, 85.

17 Rather than an irrelevant eschatological prophecy – so H. Wildberger, Isaiah 13–27: A Continental Commentary, Minneapolis, 1997 (tr. from Jesaja 13–27, BKAT 10.2, Neukirchen, 1978), 143.

18 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6). See also M. Weinfeld, “Justice and Righteousness” – משפטוצדקה – The Expression and its Meaning, in Henning Graf Reventlow and Yair Hoffmann (eds.), Justice and Righteousness: Biblical Themes and Their Influence, JSOTSup 137, Sheffield, 1992, 228–46.

19 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 7.

20 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 7; emphasis in the original.

21 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 35; emphasis mine.

22 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 29. Weinfeld oversaw the translation of his work from Hebrew himself, although he thanks two friends for assistance with it (ib., 5).

23 Gordon R. Clark, The Word Hesed in the Hebrew Bible, JSOTSup 157, Sheffield, 1993, 267.

24 Cf. M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 204.

25 Possibly six, if M. Weinfeld (Social Justice [above, n.6], 47) is right in emending Jer 9:23 after 1 Sa–2:10 LXX, השכל וידע יהוה ועשה דםד משפט וצדקה בארץ (This is a retroversion from Weinfeld's English; I have not seen his Hebrew.)

26 F.C. Fensham, Widow, Orphan and the Poor in Ancient Near Eastern Legal and Wisdom Literature, JNES 21, 1962, 129–39.

27 Walter J. Houston, The King's Preferential Option for the Poor: Rhetoric, Ideology and Ethics in Psalm 72, BibInt 7, 1999, 341–67; Contending for Justice: Ideologies and Theologies of Social Justice in the Old Testament, 2nd edn, London/New York, 2008, 139–50.

28 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 25–44.

29 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 77.

30 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 45–74.

31 M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, Oxford, 1972, 153–54; Social Justice (above, n.6), 46; he adds here that the authenticity of the document ‘is not to be doubted’.

32 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 47.

33 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 54, n. 29; 84.

34 This is an obvious deduction from the mere existence of the account in 1 Kings 12, regardless of its historicity. Daniel E. Fleming, The Legacy of Israel in Judah's Bible: History, Politics and the Reinscribing of Tradition, Cambridge, 2012, 109–13, agrees with others that it ‘is told from Judah's point of view’ (110), but argues that it accords with what we know of Israel's political ethos.

35 W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 38–39; Idem, Corvée in the Kingdom of Israel: Israelites, “Canaanites”, and Cultural Memory (JSOT, forthcoming); cf. Josh 9:21; Judg 1: 28, 30, 32, 33; 1 Kgs 9:20–21; and Avraham Faust, The Archaeology of Israelite Society in Iron Age II, Winona Lake, IN, 2012, 230–54, esp. 248–50 and 252–54.

36 W.J. Houston, Amos (above, n. 6), 64.

37 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 48–50.

38 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 51–53.

39 See also W.J. Houston, ‘King's Preferential Option’ (above, n. 26), 345, n. 7.

40 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 54–55.

41 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 55.

42 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 56.

43 N.P. Lemche, The Manumission of Slaves—The Fallow Year—The Sabbatical Year—the Jobel Year, VT 26, 1976, (38–59), 56–57; Andurārum and Mīšarum, JNES 38, 1979, (11–22), 22.

44 Bernard S. Jackson, Justice and Righteousness in the Bible: Rule of Law or Royal Paternalism?, ZAR 4, 1998, (218–62), 244–54.

45 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n.6), 35.

46 Eckart Otto, Theologische Ethik des Alten Testaments, Theologische Wissenschaft 3,2, Stuttgart, 1994, 81–94. See also E. Otto, Programme der sozialen Gerechtigkeit: Die neuassyrische (an)durāru-Institution sozialen Ausgleichs und das deuteronomische Erlaßjahr in Dtn 15*, ZAR 3, 1997, 26–63; ‘Um Gerechtigkeit im Land sichtbar werden zu lassen…’ Zur Vermittlung von Recht und Gerechtigkeit im alten Orient, in der hebräischen Bibel und in der Moderne, in Joachim Mehlhausen (ed.), Recht–Macht–Gerechtigkeit, Gütersloh, 1998, 107–45.

47 Otto assumes that the Book of the Covenant is of Judaean origin, though this can hardly be taken for granted; cf. D.E. Fleming, Legacy (above, n. 33), 114, n. 1.

48 E. Otto, Programme (above, n. 45), 42–44.

49 M.E.J. Richardson, Hammurabi's Laws: Text, Translation and Glossary, The Biblical Seminar 73, Semitic Texts and Studies 2; Sheffield, 2000, Prologue P3, 28–31.

50 E. Otto, Theologische Ethik (above, n. 45), 88.

51 E. Otto, Theologische Ethik (above, n. 45), 88.

52 E. Otto, Theologische Ethik (above, n. 45), 89.

53 Bernard S. Jackson, Ideas of Law and Legal Administration: A Semiotic Approach, in R.E. Clements (ed.), The World of Ancient Israel: Sociological, Anthropological and Political Approaches, Cambridge, 1989, (185–202), 187–88.

54 B.S. Jackson, Justice and Righteousness (above, n. 43), 246.

55 J.J. Finkelstein, Ammiṣaduqa's Edict and the Babylonian ‘Law Codes’, JCS 15, 1961, (91–104), 103.

56 M.E.J. Richardson, Hammurabi's Laws (above, n. 48), 78–79.

57 B.S. Jackson, ‘Ideas of Law’ (above, n. 52), 186; cf. ‘Justice and Righteousness’ (above, n. 40), 254, appealing to Finkelstein, ‘Ammiṣaduqa's Edict’ (above, n. 54); but I cannot find this statement there. All Finkelstein says is that the law-codes contained provisions derived from the same kings' earlier mīšarum acts.

58 B.S. Jackson, ‘Justice and Righteousness’ (above, n. 43), 249–51.

59 B.S. Jackson, private communication.

60 W.J. Houston, ‘King's Preferential Option’ (above, n. 26), 353.

61 W.J. Houston, ‘King's Preferential Option’ (above, n. 26); Contending (above, n. 26), 139–50.

62 J. Andrew Dearman, Property Rights in the Eighth-Century Prophets: The Conflict and its Background, Atlanta, 1988; Janne J. Nurmi, Die Ethik unter dem Druck des Alltags: Die Impulse der gesellschaftlichen Änderungen und Situation zu der sozialkritische Prophetie in Juda im 8. Jh. v. Chr., Åbo, 2004; W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 35–43, 49.

63 W.J. Houston, ‘King's Preferential Option’ (above, n. 26), 349–63; Contending (above, n. 26), 143–50.

64 Marvin L. Chaney, Debt Easement in Israelite History and Tradition, in David Jobling, Peggy L. Day and Gerald T. Sheppard (eds.), The Bible and the Politics of Exegesis, Cleveland, OH, 1991, (127–40), 129–30; W.J. Houston, King's Preferential Option (above, n. 26), 359. Cf. Norman K. Gottwald, The Expropriators and the Expropriated in Nehemiah 5, in Mark R. Sneed (ed.), Concepts of Class in Ancient Israel, South Florida Studies in the History of Judaism 201, Atlanta, 1999, 1–19.

65 Roland Boer, The Sacred Economy of Ancient Israel, Louisville, KY, 2015, 158–61, and literature mentioned there at n. 24, esp. Moses Finley, Debt-Bondage and the Problem of Slavery, in Brent Shaw and Richard Saller (eds.), Economy and Society in Ancient Greece, London, 1981, (150–66), 153–56.

66 W.J. Houston, ‘King's Preferential Option’ (above, n. 26), 359.

67 R. Boer, Sacred Economy (above, n. 64), 160, quoting the decree of Lipit-Ishtar in the translation of Johannes M. Renger, Royal Edicts of the Old Babylonian Period—Structural Background, in Michael Hudson and Marc Van de Mieroop (eds.), Debt and Economic Renewal in the Ancient Near East, Bethesda, MD, 2002, (139–62), 145.

68 Cf. M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 152, n.1; B.S. Jackson, Justice and Righteousness (above, n. 43), 239, n. 79.

69 W.J. Houston, ‘King's Preferential Option’ (above, n. 26), 362.

70 Dominique Charpin, Le ‘bon pasteur’: idéologie et pratique de la justice royale à l'époque paléobabylonienne, in ARGO (ed.), Les moyens d'expression du pouvoir dans les sociétés anciennes, Lettres orientales 5, Leuven, 1996, (101–14), 113.

71 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 179–214.

72 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 183.

73 Contra H. Wildberger, Isaiah 1–12 (above, n. 10), 385, 405, and M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 57–58.

74 Cf. B.S. Jackson, Law and Religion in the Hebrew Bible, in Anselm C. Hagedorn and Reinhard G. Kratz (eds.), Law and Religion in the Eastern Mediterranean from Antiquity to Early Islam, Oxford, 2013, (189–209), 193.

75 H.H. Schmid, Gerechtigkeit (above, n. 15). Schmid's thesis is dismissed by Jože Krašovec, La Justice de Dieu dans la Bible hébraique et l'interpretation juive et chrétienne, OBO 76, Fribourg/Göttingen, 1988, 15–17, on the grounds that his citations are taken out of context, that his conclusions do not follow from them, and, unkindest cut of all, ‘que l'auteur a vu dans la notion de justice l'ordre cosmique avant d'avoir commencé l'analyse’ (15). I can only say that this does not seem to me to be true of Schmid's argument in greater measure than of any other large academic thesis.

76 Klaus Koch, The Prophets, vol. 1: The Assyrian Period, London, 1982 (tr. from Die Propheten I: Assyrische Zeit, Stuttgart, 1978), p. 58.

77 Cf. Jan Joosten, The Verbal System of Classical Hebrew: A New Synthesis Elaborated on the Basis of Classical Prose, Jerusalem, 2012, 148; Bruce K. Waltke and M. O'Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, Winona Lake, IN, 1990, 563.

78 John Barton, Ethics in Isaiah of Jerusalem, JTS 32, 1981, 1–18. Reprinted in Robert P. Gordon (ed.), The Place is Too Small for Us: The Israelite Prophets in Recent Scholarship, SBTS 5, Winona Lake, IN, 1995, 80–97; and in Barton, Understanding Old Testament Ethics: Approaches and Explorations, Louisville, KY, 2003, 130–44. Barton refers in the title of his article to ‘Isaiah of Jerusalem’, meaning only to examine the ethics of the eponymous prophet himself, but noting that few of the relevant passages in Isaiah 1–39 are (or were in 1981!) controversial from a literary-critical point of view.

79 J. Barton, Isaiah of Jerusalem (above, n. 77), 8 (136 in 2003 reprint).

80 J. Barton, Isaiah of Jerusalem (above, n. 77), 10 (137 in 2003 reprint).

81 John Barton, Ethics in the Book of Isaiah, in Craig C. Broyles and Craig A. Evans (eds.), Writing and Reading the Scroll of Isaiah, Leiden, 1997, (67–77), 70. Reprinted as Ethics in the Isaianic Tradition, in Barton, Understanding (above, n. 77), (145–53), 148. Cf. John Barton, Ethics in Ancient Israel, Oxford, 2014, 116.

82 J. Barton, Isaiah of Jerusalem (above, n. 77), 13–14 (140 in 2003 reprint).

83 J. Barton, Ethics in Ancient Israel (above, n. 80), 94–126, esp. 94–100.

84 H.G.M. Williamson, Isaiah 1–5 (above, n. 6), 135, n. 49.

85 See, besides the commentaries, J. Krašovec, Justice de Dieu (above, n. 74); W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 211–14.

86 I am grateful to Professor George Brooke for this correction.

87 See H.G.M. Williamson's discussion of the construction here: Isaiah 1–5 (above, n. 6), 156–58.

88 Thomas L. Leclerc, Yahweh is Exalted in Justice: Solidarity and Conflict in Isaiah, Minneapolis, 2001, 84.

89 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 141; cf. Walter [J.] Houston, ‘Today, in Your Very Hearing’: Some Comments on the Christological Use of the Old Testament, in L.D. Hurst and N.T. Wright (eds.), The Glory of Christ in the New Testament: Studies in Christology in Memory of George Bradford Caird, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1987, (37–47), 45–46.

90 Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66, OTL, London, 1969 (tr. from Das Buch Jesaja, 40–66, ATD 19, Göttingen, 1966), 365–66. John Goldingay tries to have it both ways, speaking of ‘a prophetic king, or rather… a kingly prophet’: Isaiah 56–66, ICC, London, 2014, 291.

91 Walther Zimmerli, Das ‘Gnadenjahr des Herrn’, in Arnulf Kuschke and Ernst Kutsch (eds.), Archäologie und Altes Testament: Festschrift für Kurt Galling, Tübingen, 1970, 321–32.

92 W.J. Houston, ‘King's Preferential Option’ (above, n. 26), 344–45 and n. 5.

93 H.H. Schmid, Gerechtigkeit (above, n. 15), 127.

94 Daniel I. Block, Ezekiel, Chapters 1–24, Grand Rapids, MI, 1997, 568.

95 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 220.

96 Andrew Mein, Ezekiel and the Ethics of Exile, Oxford, 2001, 197–98.

97 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 221, 216–19.

98 So, e.g., J.G. McConville, Deuteronomy, AOTC 5, Leicester, 2002, 472. Richard D. Nelson (Deuteronomy: A Commentary, OTL, 2002, 392), appears to agree with Weinfeld (Social Justice [above, n. 6], 180) that the phrase occurs ‘in connection with the Lawgiver’, but this only means that the Blessing is attributed to Moses.

99 For what follows, cf. M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 152–78; E. Otto, Programme (above, n. 45), 51–63; N.P. Lemche, Manumission (above, n. 42), 56–57; S.A. Kaufman, A Reconstruction of the Social Welfare Systems of Ancient Israel, in W. Boyd Barrick and John R. Spencer (eds.), In the Shelter of Elyon: Essays on Ancient Palestinian Life and Literature in Honour of G.W. Ahlström, JSOTSup 31, Sheffield, 1984, (277–86), 281.

100 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 156.

101 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 157–65. However, in Deuteronomy 15 the older law embedded in the typically Deuteronomic second-person exhortation is confined to v. 2. The following verse takes up the vocabulary but reverts to the second person.

102 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 159; middle syllable rendered there as -ra-.

103 A.D.H. Mayes, Deuteronomy, NCB, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans/London, 1979, 247–48. Stylistic details in M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 162–66. Cf. W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 181, n. 55. E. Otto regards vv. 1–2 as ‘einen einheitlichen deuteronomischen Zusammenhang bildend’: Programme (above, n. 45), 53–54; this is stylistically improbable (cf. above, n. 100).

104 E. Otto, Programme (above, n. 45), 51–63.

105 W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 186, 188, 197.

106 M. Weinfeld, Social Justice (above, n. 6), 177. Cf. also Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, AB 3B, New York, 2001, 2242.

107 Niels Peter Lemche, Early Israel: Anthropological and Historical Studies on the Israelite Society Before the Monarchy, Leiden, 1985, 196–98; R. Boer, Sacred Economy (above, n. 64), 72–74.

108 W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 201.

109 E. Otto, Programme (above, n. 45), 55.

110 E. Otto, Programme (above, n. 45), 56, 59. He shows (43) this does not apply to the Old Babylonian mīšarum, which provided for the breaking of tablets.

111 W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 193; B.S. Jackson, Wisdom-Laws: A Study of the Mishpatim of Exodus 21:1–22:16, Oxford, 2004, 25 and passim.

112 J.P. Miranda, Marx and the Bible (above, n. 2), 93–97.

113 Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 184; earlier in ‘You Shall Open your Hand to your Needy Brother’: Ideology and Moral Formation in Deut 15: 1–18, in John Rogerson, Margaret Davies & M. Daniel Carroll R. (eds.), The Bible in Ethics, Sheffield 1995, 296–314 (306–07); cf. Lothar Perlitt, Ein einzig Volk von Brüdern, in D. Lührmann and G. Strecker (eds.), Kirche: Festschrift für Gunther Bornkamm zum 75. Geburtstag, Tübingen, 1980, 27–52. Having overlooked E. Otto's Programme (above, n. 45) in the composition of my Contending (above, n. 26), I take the opportunity here to say that I am puzzled by his critique of my 1995 paper in Programme (above, n. 45), 60, n. 159: ‘Mit dem Sozialprogramm in Dtn 15,1ff. sind keine Ideen sozialer Gleichheit verbunden, wie W. Houston… annimmt.’ I emphasize there that the Deuteronomic text leaves class relations, in economic terms, exactly as they were. Otto's point that such measures were intended to protect against ‘einem Absinken von Teilen der Bevölkerung aus ihren bisherigen sozialen Schichten’ requires nuancing in view of the repeated designation of the person to be helped as אביון, implying someone already at the bottom of the social hierarchy. In order to protect this person from absolute destitution the author appeals to a sense of brotherhood which implies human equality across class lines, whether or not the author intends the implication. I take Otto in another work (see next note) to imply the very same thing with regard to the Book of the Covenant.

114 E. Otto, Theologische Ethik (above, n. 45), 84–86; W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 112–14.

115 W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 117–18, 185–90, 199–203.

116 J.P. Miranda, Marx and the Bible (above, n. 2), 89.

117 W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 209–10.

118 Jon D. Levenson, Exodus and Liberation, in The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament and Historical Criticism: Jews and Christians in Biblical Studies, Louisville, KY, 1993, (127–59), 152; italics in the original).

119 W.J. Houston, Contending (above, n. 26), 205–19.

120 I am grateful once again to George Brooke for pointing out this parallel to me.

121 Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, London, 1981, 24–25.

122 R.S. Bartlett, Let Justice Roll Down (above, n. 1).