Justice vs Judgement

(Pro 13:23 KJV)  Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.

This is a case where the KJV and the NASB have different spins on the translation.  The KJV translates two words as “want” (3808) of “judgement” (4941).  The NASB combines them into “injustice”.  The nod for accuracy goes to the... KJV.  This is important because the two translations leave totally different impressions on our modern minds.

The key is this word translated “judgement” or “justice”.  Although the KJV uses the English word “justice” 28 times, only once is it this word.  Usually it is a substitution for the basic word for “righteousness”.  The overwhelming translation is a form of “judgement” (297).  The NASB has forms of “justice” as the most common (122x), followed by the “judgement” family (103) and “ordinance” (108).  

Why do I go into this?  Because in the KJV we see that we are open to understand that the reason some people are poor is because they exercise poor judgment.  Obviously the wealthy elites stack the deck in their favor but we need to understand that there are more people living in destitution because of their own bad choices than could be sent their by the bourgeoisie.  The one sided argument putting all the onus on the rich is Marxism, not Biblical.

So?  Don’t accept the mindset of being a victim.  I see people claiming to be Vietnam veterans claiming victimhood and demanding handouts.  As a Vietnam veteran myself I have to realize that it probably wasn’t the war that made them put their hand out.