What Does the Bible Say About Poverty?

Proverbs 31:9 ESV / 52 helpful votes

Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Leviticus 25:35 ESV / 34 helpful votes

“If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.

Proverbs 20:13 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.

Ecclesiastes 9:16 ESV / 15 helpful votes

But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.

Proverbs 22:2 ESV / 10 helpful votes

The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all.

2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Proverbs 24:33-34 ESV / 6 helpful votes

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

Proverbs 22:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

Proverbs 20:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

Isaiah 58:1-14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? ...

Leviticus 19:9-10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

Psalm 82:1-8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

A Psalm of Asaph. God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. ...

Matthew 4:19-25 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. ...

Bible Verses about Poverty