Deuteronomy 15:14

thou shalt furnish him liberally Lit. make-him-a-necklace (with emphatic repetition of the vb.). In this metaphor is the idea of loadingor that of ornamenting(embellishing, equipping) the governing one? Probably both are combined; the metaphor rising from the primitive custom of hoarding the family wealth in heavy necklaces or headdresses. Less likely is the derivation from the use of the collar or necklace as a badge of rank or office (as it was in Egypt, Genesis 41:42, and Persia, 1EEsther 3:6).

A similar liberality is exercised in Arabia (Doughty, Ar. Des.i. 554).

-It is not many years, "if their house-lord fears Ullah," before he will give them their liberty; and then he sends them not away empty; but in Upland Arabia (where only substantial persons are slave-holders) the good man will marry out his freed servants, male and female, endowing them with somewhat of his own substance, whether camels or palm-stems." Cp. Snouck-Hurgronje, Mekka, ii. 14: -the well-to-do owner feels himself bound where possible to provide for his loyal servant an establishment, and emancipation ranks in itself as a meritorious act: the family bond remains after as before it unbroken." Musil (Ethn. Ber.225) quotes as part of the emancipation formula: -I dismiss my slave and endow him."

flock, threshing-floor and wine-press Cp. Deuteronomy 14:23; Deuteronomy 16:13.

as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee Deuteronomy 7:13; Deuteronomy 12:15; Deuteronomy 16:17.