209. And miserable and poor, signifies that they are without truths and goods. By "miserable and poor," in the spiritual sense of the Word, are meant they who are without the knowledges of truth and good, for they are spiritually miserable and poor; the same are meant hereby in the following passages:
I am miserable and poor, O Lord; remember me (Ps. 40:17; 70:5). O Jehovah, incline Thine ear, and answer; for I am miserable and poor (Ps. 86:1). The wicked draw the sword, and bend their bow, to cast down the miserable and poor (Ps. 37:14). The wicked persecuteth the miserable and the poor, and to slay the dejected in heart (Ps. 109:16). God will judge the miserable of the people; He will keep the sons of the poor; He will deliver the poor that crieth and the miserable (Ps. 72:4, 12-13). Jehovah rescueth the miserable from him that is stronger than he, and the poor from them that spoil him (Ps. 35:10). The wicked deviseth crimes to destroy the miserable by the words of a lie, even when the poor speaketh judgment (Isa. 32:7). The miserable shall have joy in Jehovah, and the poor among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 29:19). Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 5:3; besides other places, as Isa. 10:2; Jer. 22:16; Ezek. 16:49; 18:12; 22:29; Amos 8:4; Ps. 9:18; Ps. 69:32-33; Ps. 74:21; Ps. 109:22; Ps. 140:12; Deut. 15:11; 24:14; Luke 14:13, 21, 23). By the "miserable and poor" are chiefly meant those who are not in the knowledges of truth and good and yet desire them, since by the "rich" are meant those who possess the knowledges of truth and good (n. 206).
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