James 2:6

But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?

Ver. 6. Ye have despised the poor] Pauper ubique iacet. Zephaniah 3:12, afflicted and poor are joined together; because poverty is an affliction, and makes a man trodden upon. Men go over the hedge where it is lowest. Therefore St Paul joins them together, "I have learned to want, and to be abased;" they that want shall be abased; Luke 15:30; "This thy son." He saith not, This my brother, because in poverty; which is therefore to be deprecated and prayed against, as Proverbs 30:8; Proverbs 1:1,33. Propter inediam, on account of starvation, asGenesis 37:25; Genesis 2:1,25. Propter iniuriam, On account of wrongs, Psalms 10:9; Psalms 3:1,8. Propter infamiam, On account of disgrace, as here. Our Saviour calls that good beggar Lazarus, that is, God help me, Luke 16:29; as proper a name for a beggar as could be given.

Oppress you] καταδυναστευουσιν, subjugate you, and bring your heads under their belts; trample upon you with the feet of pride and cruelty; yea, devour you, as the greater fish do the lesser. Ferae parcunt, aves pascunt, homines saeviunt, saith Cyprian. The wild beasts spare Daniel, the ravenous ravens feed Elias; only men rage and ravage, they tyranically oppress God's poor people (as the word here imports), acting therein the devil's part. See Acts 10:38; (where the same word is used); there is neither equity nor mercy to be had at their hands. Hence they are called men eaters, cannibals, Psalms 14:4, and charged with beating God's people to pieces, and grinding the faces of the poor, Isaiah 3:15; with eating their very flesh and flaying their skins from off them, and breaking off their bones, and chopping them in pieces as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron, Micah 3:3. This is a sin against race, grace, and place.

Draw you before the judgment seats] Vex you with lawsuits, and by might rob you of your right. Cedit viribus aequum.