2 Nephi 30

2 Nephi 30:6 Speaking of the descendants of Nephi finally receiving the gospel and then shall they rejoice; for they shall now that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God. Will they know that the gospel is a blessing or that it is a blessing that they were not destroyed with the rest of the Nephites?

30:9 And with righteousness shall the Lord God judge the poor, and reprove [someone] with equity for the meek of the earth. This statement seems to have been given in counterpoint to what may have been a prevailing custom of deciding in favor of the rich. It was certainly the case in all the mideaval history I ever learned, where a noble could do anything he wanted as long as it was to a commoner, because they had no rights under the law. This verse says that the will judge the poor with righteousness, but several translations indicate that he will judge them fairly or impartially. Barnes comments that he will be impartial, but the continues to cite how Christ chose his disciples from among the poor, ate with them, wasn't afraid to be their companion, etc.

Is he actually biased in favor of the poor, against the rich? He clearly stated that a rich man was less likely to get into heaven than a camel to go through an eye of a needle. When the rich young man said that he had been keeping the commandments, Christ told him to go get rid of his riches, as they were his one handicap. He indicated that the tithes of the rich are worth less than the tithes of the poor, despite being greater sums. Alma told the poor people in Ammonihah that their poverty had been the reason they were ready to hear the gospel. I wonder if perhaps Christ is actually prejudiced against the rich.

We're in a social class that is not quite rich enough to call ourselves rich, but we are clearly not poor, so it feels like whenever this topic comes up in Sunday school, it descends into people trying to outdo each other in their eloquent reasons why their choices prove that they are not under the condemnation that Christ seems willing to heap upon the actual rich.

Of course it's also entirely possible that he means the poor in spirit here, not the physically poor. I don't think so, or why would he have made the distinction between poor and meek? Poor physically, and meek spiritually. Unless he means poor in the sense of underdeveloped spiritually, but aware of it (most poor people know they are poor), while meek means humble, but not necessarily lacking in spiritual development.