Trump’s Biblical Literacy

President Trump tweeted yesterday about his excitement over certain states introducing “Bible Literacy classes” in schools. I think the White House should also consider offering these classes to the president. Here are some verses from the Bible that deal with haughtiness, hatred, falsehood, cruelty, and mistreatment of the refugee that he should consider reviewing himself. 

“And when your cattle and flocks multiply and gold silver accrue to you…then your heart will grow haughty and you will forget Hashem your God…and you will say in your heart: My power and the might of my hand have wrought this wealth for me. Then you should remember Hashem you God, for it is He who gives you strength to amass wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:13-18).

“The abomination of Hashem are all who are proud of heart” (Proverbs 16:5).

“And the haughty of stature shall be uprooted” (Isaiah 10:33).

“The haughty of eye and the broad of heart — him I cannot abide” (Psalms 101:5).

“Let a stranger praise you and not your own mouth” (Proverbs 24:2).

“Pride goes before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18).

“A man’s pride will lower him” (Proverbs 29:23)

“The proud scorner is called a mocker; he acts in the fury of malice” (Proverbs 21:24).

“The wicked man has made his face brazen” (Proverbs 21:29).

“He who conceals his sins will not succeed, but he who confesses and forsakes them will be treated mercifully” (Proverbs 28:13).

“The poor man will speak with supplications and the rich man will answer with arrogance” (Proverbs 18:23)

“Do not hate your brother in your heart” (Leviticus 19:17).

“Love truth and peace” (Zechariah 8:19).

“I have hated and despised falsehood — I have loved your Torah” (Psalms 119:163).

“Fortunate is the man who is wise to the poor man; in the day of evil Hashem will rescue him” (Psalms 42:2).

“Cruelty is wrathful and anger overwhelming” (Proverbs 27:4).

“Do not take revenge and do not bear a grudge” (Leviticus 19:18).

“When your foes falls, do not rejoice; and when he stumbles, let not your heart be glad” (Proverbs 24:17).

“And you shall love your fellow as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).

“Remove anger from your heart, and remove evil from your flesh” (Kohelet 11:10).

“For anger resides in the breast of fools” (Kohelet 7:9).

“He who waxes in anger bears his punishment” (Proverbs 19:19).

“Better is he who withholds his wrath than the hero, and he who rules his spirit than the conqueror of a city” (Proverbs 16:32).

“A man’s intellect is the withholding of his anger” (Proverbs 19:11).

“He who withholds grain will be cursed by the people” (Proverbs 11:26).

“These six Hashem hates, and seven are the abomination of His soul; haughty eyes, a lying tongue…a false witness spouting lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16-19).

“He shall not break his word” (Numbers 30:3).

“The speaker of falsehoods will not be established before My eyes” (Psalms 101:7)

“O Hashem, who will abide in Your tent? Who will dwell on Your holy mountain? He who walks uprightly and performs righteousness and speaks truth in his heart” (Psalms 15:1-2).

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21).

“And you shall not accept a false report” (Exodus 23:1).

“Keep your tongue from evil” (Psalms 34:14).

“There shall be one law for the citizen and for the stranger who dwells among you” (Exodus 12:49).

“You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:13).

“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan.If you do mistreat them, I will heed their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me, and My anger shall blaze forth and I will put you to the sword, and your own wives shall become widows and your children orphans” (Exodus 22:20-23).

“You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9).

“You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the LORD am your God” (Leviticus 19:10).

“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:18).

“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the LORD am your God” (Leviticus 19:33-34).

“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the LORD am your God” (Leviticus 23:22).

“If your kinsman, being in straits, comes under your authority, and you hold him as though a resident alien, let him live by your side” (Leviticus 25:35).

“You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:18-19).

“If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young” (Deuteronomy 22:6).

No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of the LORD; none of their descendants, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of the LORD, because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Aram-naharaim, to curse you” (Deuteronomy 23:4-5).

“You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your kinsman. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in his land” (Deuteronomy 23:8).

“You shall not turn over to his master a slave who seeks refuge with you from his master. He shall live with you in any place he may choose among the settlements in your midst, wherever he pleases; you must not ill-treat him” (Deuteronomy 23:16-17).

“Cursed be he who subverts the rights of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.—And all the people shall say, Amen” (Deuteronomy 27:19).

“Or if a foreigner who is not of Your people Israel comes from a distant land for the sake of Your name—for they shall hear about Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm—when he comes to pray toward this House,oh, hear in Your heavenly abode and grant all that the foreigner asks You for. Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built” (I Kings 8:41-43).

“Learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; Aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; Defend the cause of the widow” (Isaiah 1:17).

“No, this is the fast I desire: To unlock fetters of wickedness, And untie the cords of the yoke To let the oppressed go free; To break off every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry, And to take the wretched poor into your home; When you see the naked, to clothe him, And not to ignore your own kin” (Isaiah 58:6-7).

“No, if you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one man and another;if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place; if you do not follow other gods, to your own hurt—then only will I let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers for all time” (Jeremiah 7:5-7).

“Thus said the LORD: Do what is just and right; rescue from the defrauder him who is robbed; do not wrong the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; commit no lawless act, and do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place” (Jeremiah 22:3).

“Fathers and mothers have been humiliated within you; strangers have been cheated in your midst; orphans and widows have been wronged within you” (Ezekiel 22:7).

“And the people of the land have practiced fraud and committed robbery; they have wronged the poor and needy, have defrauded the stranger without redress” (Ezekiel 22:29).

“But [first] I will step forward to contend against you, and I will act as a relentless accuser against those who have no fear of Me: Who practice sorcery, who commit adultery, who swear falsely, who cheat laborers of their hire, and who subvert [the cause of] the widow, orphan, and stranger, said the LORD of Hosts” (Malachi 3:5).

“No sojourner spent the night in the open; I opened my doors to the road” (Job 31:32).

“Thus said the LORD of Hosts: Execute true justice; deal loyally and compassionately with one another. Do not defraud the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the poor; and do not plot evil against one another” (Zecharia 7:9-10).

“The LORD watches over the stranger; He gives courage to the orphan and widow, but makes the path of the wicked tortuous” (Psalms 146:9).