Deuteronomy 15
DOYLYChap. XV. ver. 7—11. If there be among you a poor man &c.] Great care was hereby taken to prevent the probable operation of the laws of the sabbatical year, and of the jubilee, to check the feelings of compassion towards the indigent. By this most humane law, “the poor” are represented as always to continue in the land, in order to exercise the liberality of the rich: who are promised to be rewarded, in proportion to their liberality, with temporal blessings by God Himself, the Supreme Proprietor of their lands. While on the other hand, by a necessary inference, the churlish or the niggardly were to be punished with a temporal curse. Never were municipal laws and institutions fenced with so complete and certain sanctions, both of rewards and punishments in this life. Dr. Hales.
Deuteronomy 15:12
- — if thy brother, — be sold unto thee, &c.] The case of slaves was truly deplorable among the most polished nations of antiquity, the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. Their slavery was perpetual, and they were deprived of all civil rights and immunities, and might be tortured, put to death, or starved, at the will of their merciless masters. The last was practised by old Cato the censor, so admired for his virtue, when his slaves grew old and past their labour! How different were the humane and equitable regulations of the Hebrew legislator. The hired servant, or day-labourer, was to be paid his wages in the evening, after his work was over: payment was not to be deferred till the next morning, Lev. xix. 13; Deut. xxiv. 14, 15. The bought servant, or household slave,
Deuteronomy 15:13
- And thou shalt remember &c.] This is a powerful motive, to incline us to show mercy. The example of God’s mercy, and the sense of our liability to sufferings, strongly impel to compassion those who duly consider them. Bp. Kidder.