ession."

"Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted
in the gate: for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul
of those that spoiled them."

Usury and unjust gain are joined by Solomon as sins of the same
nature. It is also implied that they are necessarily connected with
want of sympathy and helpfulness toward the poor. They are presented
as an oppression that shall not bless the oppressor.

This proverb does not confine the evil to the borrower like the
proverb, "The borrower is servant to the lender." The wrong is not
confined to those of the poor to whom loans may be made. The
oppression of usury is upon all the poor though they are not
borrowers. They are the ultimate sufferers though the loan may be
made by one rich man to another to enable him to engage in some
business for profit. Usury is so bound up with injustice that its
practice cannot fail to result in increasing the hard conditions of
all the poor.

Solomon's reign was brilliant, and the ships of his commerce entered
every port in the known world, yet usury was not necessary and was not
practiced in that prosperous age.

CHAPTER V.

DENUNCIATION OF JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL.

The Hebrew nation reached its summit of power and glory during the
reign of King Solomon, but corruption crept in and disintegration
followed, and a series of conflicts between portions of the kingdom.
The laws given by Moses were neglected, and a long period of gross
sinning followed. They were warned by the faithful yet hopeful prophet
Isaiah that the overthrow of their nation was certain, and that their
people would be carried captive to a strange land unless they forsook
utterly their sins and turned to righteousness. They did not heed and
the predicted calamities came upon them.

In the midst of these calamities the contemporary prophets Jeremiah
and Ezekiel ministered. They differed greatly in their dispositions.

Jeremiah was a complainer. Always bemoaning his own and his people's
hard lot. The Lamentations are recognized as the best extant
expression of unmitigated grief. He lamented his birth because he was
treated as a usurer and oppressor, when he had never exacted usury,
nor had business with usurers. Jer. 15:10: "Woe, is me, my brother,
that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the
whole earth. I have neither lent on usury, nor have men lent to me on
usury; yet every one of them doth curse me."