ABSTRACT
A variety of new institutions evolved in response to the many economic and social changes that intensified the problem of poverty in ancient Judea. There had always been poor people in Judea, but only in course of time did poverty become a societal problem. Poverty, inequality, and exploitation were still prevalent and represented a cancerous growth in the body politic of Judean society. The writings of Nehemiah, the Jewish governor of the Persian province of Judea, give vivid evidence of the existence of at least two social classes, the rich and poor, in Judea of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. In Judea poverty was so rampant that many Jews reaped green stalks of corn because they had no other food to still their hunger. The appearance of Jewish highwaymen at this time was another indication of economic difficulties and of the increase in poverty so prevalent in contemporary Jewish Judea.
