Leviticus 25:35

_AND IF THY BROTHER BE WAXEN POOR, AND FALLEN IN DECAY WITH THEE; THEN THOU SHALT RELIEVE HIM: YEA, THOUGH HE BE A STRANGER, OR A SOJOURNER; THAT HE MAY LIVE WITH THEE._ If thy brother be waxen poor ... relieve him. This was a most benevolent provision for the poor and unfortunate, designed to aid them or alleviate the evils of their condition. Whether a native Israelite or a mere sojourner, his richer neighbour was required to give him food, lodging, and a supply of money without usury. The latter was severely condemned (Psalms 15:5; Ezekiel 18:8; Ezekiel 18:17); but the prohibition cannot be considered as applicable to the modern practice of men in business borrowing and lending at legal rates of interes

35-38 Poverty and decay are great grievances, and very common; the poor ye have always with you. Thou shalt relieve him; by sympathy, pitying the poor; by service, doing for them; and by supply, giving to them according to their necessity, and thine ability. Poor debtors must not be oppressed. Observe the arguments here used against extortion: "Fear thy God." Relieve the poor, "that they may live with thee;" for they may be serviceable to thee. The rich can as ill spare the poor, as the poor can the rich. It becomes those that have received mercy to show mercy....

Rather, And if thy brother (an Israelite) becomes poor and falls into decay with thee, thou shalt assist him and let him live with thee like a resident foreigner. He was not to be regarded as an outcast, but was to be treated with the same respect and consideration as a resident foreigner who, like him, could possess no land, but could accumulate property and live in comfort as a free man. See Leviticus 16:29 note....

EXPOSITION The subject of the sacred seasons is taken up again in this chapter, after the parenthetical insertion of Leviticus 24:1. There remain the septennial festive season and that of the half-century—the sabbatical year and the jubilee. The sabbatical year was instituted not for any supposed physical benefit accruing from it to the land, but, first, as serving for a link between the sabbath and the jubilee by means of the sacred number seven—the sabbatical year being the seventh year, and the jubilee being the year following the seven-times-seventh year; and secondly, and chiefly, as enforcing the lesson of the weekly sabbath in a manner that could not be overlooked, and symbolically, teaching the universal application of the sabbatical law, even where physical needs were not concerned, and in that way suggesting the expectation of a rest to be hereafter attain

AND IF THY BROTHER BE WAXEN POOR,.... An Israelite, as Aben Ezra, be reduced to a low estate, through afflictions in body, or in family, or through losses in trade, or want of business, or through one providence or another: AND FALLEN IN DECAY WITH THEE; in his worldly substance: or "his hand wavers", or "fails" p; so that he cannot support himself and his family, has not a sufficiency, or it is not in the power of his hands to do it; and it is not owing to sloth and negligence, but to unavoidable want and necessity: THEN THOU SHALT RELIEVE HIM; not merely by sympathizing with him, but by communicating to him, and distributing to his necessities; holding him up that he may not utterly fall, and strengthening his hands, that he may have a supply for his present wants: [YEA, THOUGH HE BE] A STRANGER OR A SOJOURNER; whether a proselyte of righteousness, who is circumcised, and in all thi...

4. THE SABBATIC YEAR AND THE YEAR OF JUBILEE CHAPTER 25 _ 1. The Sabbatic year (Leviticus 25:1)_ 2. The jubilee (Leviticus 25:8) 3. The jubilee and the land (Leviticus 25:13) 4. The jubilee and the dwelling houses (Leviticus 25:29) 5. The jubilee, the poor and the bondmen (Leviticus 25:35) This is the great restoration chapter in Leviticus. All is connected preeminently with Israel's land. The application, which has been made, that this chapter foreshadows a universal res

THE YEAR OF JUBILE. This law contains two large provisions, the return of estates to their original owners, and the liberation of Hebrew slaves, both in the fiftieth year. It also contains a section which refers to the sabbatical year (Leviticus 25:17) and a law against the exploitation of poor Israelites (Leviticus 25:35). Of these the second at least (as perhaps the first) belongs to H. With the law of Jubile the case is different (see p. 102). A right of redemption certainly did exist (_cf._ Ruth 3 and Jeremiah 32:7, and the reference to the year of liberty, Ezekiel 46:17); but where we should have expected a re

FALLEN IN DECAY. "his hands have become shaky" or become feeble....

_be waxen poor_ See on Leviticus 25:25. _his hand fail with thee_ i.e. if he lose his power of self-support by personal effort, and thou art able as a neighbour to help him. _uphold_ The text gives the literal sense of the Heb. verb, and the mg., _relieve_, its application in this context. _as a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with thee_ The Heb. rather connects the first words of the clause with that which precedes, and so Dillm. and Driver (with the LXX.) suppose that the two substantives are a later insertion here under the influence of Leviticus 25:23_; Leviticus 25:47_....

AND IF THY BROTHER BE WAXEN POOR— The two great benefits of the year of jubilee were, a restoration to possessions and to freedom, Leviticus 25:10. Such particulars as respect possessions being settled, the case of freedom, or the release of servants and slaves, comes next to be considered: wherein the benevolence of the divine Lawgiver is very observable, inculcating upon the people the utmost compassion and charity towards their brethren in decay, to proselytes and strangers, as well as to native Jews: for so the sacred writer himself here explains the word _brother._...