The Nature of Just Judgment

"...toward his own brother"; and he adds, "not to oppress the widow or the orphan," and he adds, "the sojourner and the poor." For in this way the "malice of the brother, not bearing a grudge against each in their own hearts" will easily exist. What does he intend by these things? I say it is time to see.

The word of the Lord, having appeared many times already in Zechariah and now appearing in it, forbids these things. "These things," he says, "says the Lord of Hosts" to each of the rulers of the people: "Judge a just judgment" (Zech 7:9), as there is one who judges unjustly through bribery and grants favors through friendship, and even when there is a bribe toward someone being judged. To such complaints the divine word cries out to those: "How long will you judge injustice and accept the faces of sinners? Judge the orphan and the poor, justify the lowly and the needy" (Isa 5:4). Such are also those concerning whom the prophet Isaiah speaks: "Those justifying the ungodly because of gifts and removing the right of the righteous" (Isa 5:4).

Concerning those who lawlessly act thus, the prophet Habakkuk cries to God: "Judgment has become contrary to me and the judge takes bribes; therefore the law is dissolved and justice does not go to its end, because the ungodly oppresses the righteous" (Hab 1:4). It must be said to those examining things in this way, who dispute among themselves, that they are not to be considered just judges, but altogether unrighteous and lawless judges.

For it is fitting that no one should observe the judge, whether he prefers wealth, status, or lineage, whether he prefers friendship, or looks toward a bribe, but rather toward the facts of the things being judged. The priest who receives God proclaims these things to those being ordained to judge in this way: "Both the great and the small you shall judge, you shall not accept a face," "and the poor you shall not show mercy in judgment," "for the judgment of God is." It is not right to distribute and measure the things of God to whoever happens to be. For of their own things, let each have authority to grant to whomsoever it may seem to him; not of his own, but of God is the judgment according to the divine law.

It occurred to one of the ancients to say that the judge is a living justice, that is, possessing and subsisting, perfect...

As one having been established according to justice, so that just as in other works of virtue he pursues the just, so also in judging.

The power of the one being observed is known from the opposite; for just as he who has his disposition and his practice established according to justice pursues the just, so he who is regulated according to inequality and malice pursues the unjust. All such people existed toward whom the word says: 'How long do you judge unjustly and receive the person of sinners?' (Amos 5:24) of the divine lawgiver saying: 'You will judge the great and the small, not receiving a person' (Deut 10:17), even if the one being judged is rich, even if he has honor and rank. For the law of those being judged does not count the abundance of wealth and poverty, nor rank and dishonor, but works and deeds having been performed according to virtue or malice.

Just as therefore it is not necessary to take advantages from the wealth and rank of those being judged, so also you will not lack wealth and the lowliness of dishonor; 'For you will not show mercy to the poor in judgment' (Ps 82:3). For the just judgment and the things of the poor must be examined. For in this way someone will justify an orphan and a widow, and a poor man and a needy person, not granting him the just right if he acts unjustly, so that the legal judgment may not be perverted.

The righteous word, having commanded that a just judgment be brought forth, proceeds to forbid: 'Not to tyrannize the widow, the orphan, the sojourner, and the needy' (Exod 22:22). For it is not proper to impose punishment tyrannically against those deprived of human help, but from the opposite to reach out to them with righteousness, according to that which is commanded: 'Become, he says, as a father to orphans, and instead of a husband to their mother' (Ps 68:5), 'judging orphans and justifying widows.'

For this is unassailable and according to the will of the one who composed all, as James writes in the epistle in which he addressed the believers thus: 'Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world' (James 1:27). He who thus serves God, how could he unjustly judge these whom he visits in their affliction, filling up their lacks through almsgiving and other help and protection as they may need?