Do not rob the poor because he is poor,Nor oppress the afflicted at the gate;
For the LORD will plead their cause,And plunder the soul of those who plunder them.
Proverbs 22:22–23 · NKJVPart of Do Not Rob the Poor, Proverbs 22:22–23.
Quick answer
The poor man who cannot afford an advocate has one anyway: the LORD Himself takes the case, and His judgment fits the crime exactly, plundering the plunderers.
Read the whole unit
Read the whole unit
The first saying of the new collection begins where the LORD's own priorities begin. The command names the cynical logic it forbids: robbing the poor because he is poor, oppressing the afflicted "at the gate," the ancient courtroom, where the powerless could be beaten legally, by verdicts money had already reached. Verse 23 supplies the reason, and it is not a sentiment but a docket: the LORD will plead their cause. The man with no advocate has the Advocate; the case the town's justice system dropped has been picked up by a higher court. The sentence matches the crime with poetic exactness, He will plunder the soul of those who plunder them, and the same warning stands almost verbatim over the fatherless at 23:10–11, where the Redeemer is called mighty. Exploiting the defenseless is the worst legal miscalculation in Scripture: the victim who looked cheapest to wrong turns out to have the most dangerous counsel in existence.
What this verse contributes
the reason: the LORD as counsel for the plundered, and a judgment shaped exactly like the crime.
The other half
Do not rob the poor for the very reason that makes it easy: that he is poor, defenseless, cheap to wrong. The next verse explains why the easy target is the most dangerous one in Israel.
Related: Proverbs 23:10–11 · Proverbs 14:31 · Exodus 22:22–24
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.