Tight Fists, Open Hands

David L. Baker’s recent Tight Fists or Open Hands?: Wealth and Poverty in Old Testament Law is a thorough and judicious introduction to the Pentateuch’s teaching on economics. The book has a limited scope. Baker largely ignores the contemporary economic situation, and gives comparatively little attention to recent works in theology and economics, and does not go into detail on prophetic texts. He focuses instead on economic texts in the law, and compares Israel’s economic regulations to those of surrounding Ancient Near Eastern peoples. His large topics are land and property, marginal groups, and justice and generosity.

He sticks close to his texts. He recognizes, for instance, that the law does not outlaw slavery outright, but instead “establishes various principles to ameliorate the condition of the poor and needy, emphasising the individual worth of every human being and treating slaves as persons rather thyan property.”

Further, with a history rooted in manumission, Israel was to be a community without slaves: “If in exceptional circumstances no other way can be found to pay off a debt, temporary slavery and bonded labour may be permitted, so long as it is strictly limited in term, with conditions like those of an employee.” Once their term was over, bond-servants went off to be self-employed.

Various laws demanded that even the landless and poor share in the joy of harvest: “the biblical laws encourage landholders to be generous, sharing harvest blessings with less fortunate members of the community through regulations for the sabbatical year, gleaning, tithing, and ‘scrumping,’” i.e., “entering an orcharge without permission and helping oneself to fruit.” By following these regulations, “Israelites are reminded that they do not have absolute rights over the land and its produce, but have been privileged to live there by the divine owner and are dependent on him for its fertility. The use of the triennial tithe for social purposes is also a recognition that one way of serving God is to serve the poor.”

The law’s instruction on debt is “radical”: “Members of the covenant community with surplus resources are reminded that all they have comes from God, and surpluses should be used for the benefit of others rather than to enrich themselves further. So loans to the poor must always be interest-free, though this does not necessarily exclude the possibility of making a profit on business loans which provide capital for trade or investment. A pledge may be required only if it does not cause hardship to the borrower, and the poor must not be refused loans if they are unable to provide security.”

Uniquely in the Near East, the Bible protects the rights of employees, by requiring a day of rest and by demanding “prompt payment.”