order of creation is equated with a preferred social order, such as by appeal to “natural law” ’.4 However, the recovery of creation theology brings in its wake the question of its relevance to the political order. Important pointers have been given in this respect by H. H. Schmid and R. Knierim. Schmid argued that there was an order in the world that embraced nature, law, ethics and politics. The key Old Testament concept which expresses this unity is tsedeq/tsedaqah,5 terms often translated by