The Foreigner

These are some of the scripture verses that I meditate upon when I want to better understand the ever elusive idea of justice. I was drawn by a curiosity of what God's thoughts and views are on the fatherless. What I then discovered was that oftentimes the Word includes fatherless, widows, and foreigner all together, implying they are a shared group with shared griefs and empathy needs. It was so comforting for me to first read these verses, and I hope that they provide the same sort of comfort to you as well. This is a reminder for how we are to treat one another. 

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Jeremiah 22:3

This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 

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Psalm 146:9

The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

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Deuteronomy 10:18-19

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners

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Zechariah 7:10

Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other. 

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Deuteronomy 27:19

Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow. Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"

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Jeremiah 7:6

If you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.

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Deuteronomy 16:11

And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name--you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you.