Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/399

 TREATMENT OF INFERIORS IN ISRAEL 385

them as their protectors and the champions of their rights ; but we do well to inquire if poor men were not more docile then than such are today among Germanic and Celtic peoples ; if they were not less inclined to rise up in wrath and wreak vengeance on their oppressors and despoilers ; if they were not more dis- posed to suffer and to die rather than to endeavor to maintain their rights and save themselves ? The poor among the Hebrews who were then afflicted apparently were not only ill-fitted, as regards resources, to stand up for their rights, but they were too weak and distrustful of themselves to do so. It is noteworthy that the poor are spoken of as the meek or the humble (Amos 2:7; Isa. 11:4; 29:19; 61:1); as it certainly is significant that nowhere in the prophetic literature do we read of the indigna- tion, the anger, or the wrath of the poor as being stirred. It was for them to suffer and wait upon Jehovah. The fact is pathetic, but is all too evident that they had learned their lesson so that naught beyond a cry or a groan is spoken of as escaping them. At rare intervals they may have been stirred to wrath when the worst things were meeted out to them ; their cry may have been a cry of rage ; but what we have to notice is that it was their meekness under loss and wrong that impressed the prophets and, it may be, led them with the greater vehemence to espouse their cause.

EDWARD DAY. SPRINGFIELD, MASS.