Proverbs 23:11

These verses belong to the collection that Proverbs calls “the words of the wise” (Proverbs 22:17–24:34), sayings about justice, wealth, how we treat one another and where our choices lead. Just before them, Proverbs 23:9 warns against wasting wisdom on a fool, and just after them, Proverbs 23:12 calls us to heed instruction.

In Israel land was a sacred trust. The LORD apportioned it to tribes and families as their inheritance (Numbers 26), and it passed down from one generation to the next. Its borders were marked on the ground, typically with stones or pillars, and these are the “landmarks” of this verse. The Hebrew word, gᵉbûwl, means a border or boundary, and by extension the territory it encloses. The verb “remove”, nâçag, means to move back, depart, remove or turn away. A man who shifted his neighbour’s stone moved the border back into his neighbour’s land and quietly made his own field larger. It was theft, and a deceitful kind, because the field looked the same while the family lost part of its living and its children’s inheritance.

The word “old” is ʻôwlâm, ancient time. These boundaries were set long ago and handed down, so their age was part of their right. The law of Moses had already forbidden moving them: “Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance” (Deuteronomy 19:14). When the curses were read over Israel, this was one of them: “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen” (Deuteronomy 27:17). Proverbs gives the same command as wisdom, because fair dealing and respect for what belongs to others are the ground a just and settled people stands on.

The second line names the people most easily robbed in this way. The fatherless, yâthôwm, is the orphan, from a root that Strong’s glosses “to be lonely”. In Israel the father was the one who protected the household’s rights and land, so a child without one lacked a protector, a legal advocate and much of a family’s standing. To “enter into” their fields (sâdeh, a field or ground) is to encroach on them, to seize part of the land or take what it grows. Whoever did it chose victims least able to defend themselves.

The two lines belong together. The first gives the rule about boundaries, and the second gives the worst way of breaking it.

Scripture names the fatherless again and again, usually beside the widow, the stranger and the poor. The law says, “Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child” (Exodus 22:22). Zechariah repeats it: “And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor” (Zechariah 7:10). The psalm calls God “A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows” (Psalm 68:5). To prey on such people is to wrong those whom God has taken as his own.

Verse 11 gives the reason for verse 10, and the reason is a person. “Redeemer” translates gâʼal, to redeem according to the law of kinship, and the one who did this was the go’el, the kinsman-redeemer. He was a close male relative who bore the legal and moral duty to protect his family. He bought back land that had been sold to pay a debt, avenged the blood of a murdered relative, and could marry a dead kinsman’s widow so that his name and line went on. The book of Ruth shows one at work, when Boaz acts as go’el for Naomi and Ruth and restores their inheritance and their line (Ruth 1–4).

An orphan might have no such relative left alive. Proverbs says the fatherless have one all the same, and he is the LORD. He takes the place of their nearest kinsman, whose part is to win back what was taken and answer for the wrong that was done. Moses said this of him too, that he executes justice for the fatherless and the widow (Deuteronomy 10:18).

“Mighty” is châzâq, from the verb châzaq, and it means strong, hard or intense. The man who robs an orphan thinks he is dealing with a child. He is in fact dealing with a Redeemer whose strength stands above every oppressor’s wealth, influence and skill with the law. Israel sang of the LORD’s right hand as glorious in power when he brought them out of Egypt (Exodus 15:6), and that same strength stands behind the orphan’s field.

This Redeemer goes to court. The verb “plead”, rîyb, means to quarrel, contend or accuse, and in a separate sense to plead another’s cause. The noun “cause” is also rîyb, a contest or dispute. So the line says that he will contend their contest. He takes up the orphan’s case as his own, brings it and sees it through.

“With thee” turns the proverb on the one listening. The case is brought against whoever moved the stone or entered the field, and the Redeemer is the one bringing it. That makes the verse a stern warning, since every wrong done to the defenceless will be answered. It is also a comfort to the weak, because the very helplessness that made them easy to rob is what puts their cause in God’s hands. Isaiah calls God’s people to share in this work: “Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17).

The New Testament shows the kinsman-redeemer in Jesus. He came into our weakness to win back what was lost through sin, and he paid the price himself: “ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold … But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19). He is mighty as well. Paul speaks of the exceeding greatness of God’s power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead (Ephesians 1:19–20).

The inheritance Christ secures is kept safe from every hand that would move its boundary. Peter calls it “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–5). Jesus called the weary and heavy laden to come to him (Matthew 11:28–30), and as the good shepherd he lays down his life for his sheep and guards them from the wolf (John 10:11–15).

He also pleads a cause. “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). In Proverbs the Redeemer pleads against the oppressor. In 1 John, Christ pleads for his people before the Father, and justice and mercy meet in him.

These two verses show who God is. He notices a boundary stone moved a few feet and a field taken from a child with no father. He makes the cause of the weakest his own, and he is strong enough to win it. The fatherless always have a kinsman, because God has made himself theirs. The words “with thee” keep every one of us honest, since the boundary of whatever belongs to another is under his eye. And in Christ the same mighty Redeemer has bought back his people and keeps for them an inheritance that no hand can move.