2 Nephi 13:14

pam · #1 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 11:53 AM

Reference Search: 2 Nephi 13:14

14 The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people and the princes thereof; for ye have eaten up the vineyard and the spoil of the poor in your houses.

Quotes for Discussion

Vineyard—
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah his pleasant plant.
Isaiah 5:7

“Spoil of the poor”
To spoil the poor means to take forcefully the goods and property of the poor through high taxation, as booty during wartime, or by other means. Social justice for the poor is a constant theme in Isaiah’s writings.
Parry, Parry & Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, p. 43

rameumptom · #2 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 01:08 PM

This is a very apropos verse during these economic times. Clearly the rich and governmental leaders are often to blame for the harsh economic times that go on. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

We bail out the banks and other "too big to fail" companies, but the feds ignore the Chamber of Commerce, which represents mostly small business. Where I live, they laid off several staff members from the Indianapolis Colts for cost cutting measures. It was noted that had Peyton Manning given up only 5% of his salary for 1 year, it would have financed all the salaries for those laid off for the next 5 years!

I have nothing against Manning, a nice guy. But I think we do ourselves a disservice by enriching the rich off the backs of the poor. Instead of laying off the workers, perhaps if more business leaders were to cut back on their salaries, more people could be kept working and being productive. It makes no sense to cut jobs at many banks, and then give huge bonuses to execs, simply because the bank "made a profit" off the backs of those laid off.

As sad as it is here in the USA, it is worse in many other nations. We've seen people literally starved to death by the leaders of their nations, simply because they are of a different religion or race. Eventually it will catch up to them. They will have to explain, as did the rich man who allowed Lazarus to die of poverty, just why they did not use their wealth to bless the poor.