Social Justice. In the modern world a socially minded leader faced with corruption and economic turmoil would declare that his or her political goal was "change," to give citizens and future generations a better life. The ancient Near Eastern worldview lacked this modern concept of ongoing progress. Reform meant the re-establishment of a past order in which each household operated without discord. Society was stratified, and the ordering of classes was considered normal; there existed little social mobility. Revolutionary transformation was unthinkable. A good society was one in which people in each class conducted themselves according to proper modes of behavior believed to have once existed in an idealized past. Change meant clearing away abuse and cleaning up economic dislocations; it did not imply social or political upheaval. In this view, society needed to return to the status quo by...