If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.
Parallel translations
- WEB If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother;
- KJV If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
- NKJV “If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother,
- NASB “If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother;
- NLT “But if there are any poor Israelites in your towns when you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Toward a poor fellow Israelite, no one was to harden his heart or close his hand. God forbids indifference to a brother's need.
Overview
Within the towns God was giving them, Israelites were commanded against a calloused, tight-fisted response to poverty. The language of hardened heart and shut hand exposes the inner attitudes God cares about, not just outward acts. This anticipates the New Testament's insistence that genuine love opens the hand to a brother in need and does not close the heart against him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Deut 15:9Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
- Prov 21:13Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too shall cry out and receive no answer.
- 1 Jn 3:16–17By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
- Jas 2:15–16Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
- Matt 18:30But he refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay his debt.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 15:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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