Luke 1:53 → Job 15:29

Mary sings, "He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty" - πλουτοῦντας ἐξαπέστειλεν κενούς (Luke 1:53). Eliphaz says of the wicked man, "He will no longer be rich; his wealth will not endure" - LXX οὔτε μὴ πλουτισθῇ, οὐδὲ μὴ μείνῃ αὐτοῦ τὰ ὑπάρχοντα (Job 15:29). The cognate πλουτ- root and the shared verdict that riches do not last are real, and they place both texts inside the same wisdom conviction: wealth is not a standing before God. The link should nonetheless be graded low, for two reasons. First, the Magnificat's own sources lie much closer to hand. Hannah supplies the antithesis outright - "those who were full hire themselves out for bread, but the hungry hunger no more" (1 Samuel 2:5) - and Psalm 107:9 supplies the positive line almost verbatim: "He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things." Second, Job 15:29 is Eliphaz speaking, and the book's own ending disqualifies his counsel: "My anger burns against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken about Me what is right" (Job 42:7). Eliphaz's maxim is not false in itself; it is false as an account of Job, because he uses the reversal as a rule that explains suffering rather than as a promise that overturns it. Mary's use is the inversion of his. She does not say the rich are wicked and therefore lose; she says God Himself scatters, brings down, fills, and sends away - and she says it as a woman of no standing whose only wealth is that "He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant" (Luke 1:48). That is the difference between a moral law and a gospel. The God who empties the rich has done it by making Himself poor, and the "good things" He fills the hungry with are finally Himself.