Amos 2:6
Thus says the LORD:
"For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of shoes."
Most ancient religions tended to make the gods the Best Buddies of the King. Masses of toiling, anonymous plebes were there in order to build grave monuments featuring paintings of Pharaoh Whosit being welcomed into the afterlife by the gods. The thousands who lived and died to build the tomb were just worker bees. If one dropped dead under a load of bricks it was an interruption in the functioning of the machine, not a big deal. But the God of Israel was something altogether different. He talked as though the alien, the orphan and the widow were at a center stage, not the Important People. It's still true today: a thought that Powerful Abusers should remember. And a thought that those who mourn should be comforted by.
