Leviticus 25:25

25:25 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 15:7-8

The Spirit of Liberality

15:7 If a fellow Israelite ²  from one of your villages ³  in the land that the Lord your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive ⁴  to his impoverished condition. ⁵  15:8 Instead, you must be sure to open your hand to him and generously lend ⁶  him whatever he needs. ⁷ 

Proverbs 14:20-21

14:20 A poor person is disliked ⁸  even by his neighbors,

but those who love the rich are many.

14:21 The one who despises his neighbor sins,

but whoever is kind to the needy is blessed.

Proverbs 17:5

17:5 The one who mocks the poor ⁹  insults ¹⁰  his Creator;

whoever rejoices over disaster will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 19:17

19:17 The one who is gracious ¹¹  to the poor lends ¹²  to the Lord,

and the Lord ¹³  will repay him ¹⁴  for his good deed. ¹⁵ 

Mark 14:7

14:7 For you will always have the poor with you, and you can do good for them whenever you want. But you will not always have me! ¹⁶ 

John 12:8

12:8 For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me!” ¹⁷ 

John 12:2

12:2 So they prepared a dinner for Jesus ¹⁸  there. Martha ¹⁹  was serving, and Lazarus was among those present at the table ²⁰  with him.

Colossians 1:9

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ²¹  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ²²  to fill ²³  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

James 2:5-6

2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ²⁴  Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? 2:6 But you have dishonored the poor! ²⁵  Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts?

[25:25]  ¹ tn Heb “the sale of his brother.”

[15:7]  ² tn Heb “one of your brothers” (so NASB); NAB “one of your kinsmen”; NRSV “a member of your community.” See the note at v. 2.

[15:7]  ³ tn Heb “gates.”

[15:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “withdraw your hand.” Cf. NIV “hardhearted or tightfisted” (NRSV and NLT similar).

[15:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “from your needy brother.”

[15:8]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before both verbs. The translation indicates the emphasis with the words “be sure to” and “generously,” respectively.

[15:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “whatever his need that he needs for himself.” This redundant expression has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “hated.” The verse is just a statement of fact. The verbs “love” and “hate” must be seen in their connotations: The poor are rejected, avoided, shunned – that is, hated; but the rich are sought after, favored, embraced – that is, loved.

[17:5]  ⁹ sn The parallelism helps define the subject matter: The one who “mocks the poor” (NAB, NASB, NIV) is probably one who “rejoices [NIV gloats] over disaster.” The poverty is hereby explained as a disaster that came to some. The topic of the parable is the person who mocks others by making fun of their misfortune.

[17:5]  ¹⁰ sn The Hebrew word translated “insults” (חֵרֵף, kheref) means “reproach; taunt” (as with a cutting taunt); it describes words that show contempt for or insult God. The idea of reproaching the Creator may be mistaking and blaming God’s providential control of the world (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 337). W. G. Plaut, however, suggests that mocking the poor means holding up their poverty as a personal failure and thus offending their dignity and their divine nature (Proverbs, 187).

[19:17]  ¹¹ sn The participle חוֹנֵן (khonen, “shows favor to”) is related to the word for “grace.” The activity here is the kind favor shown poor people for no particular reason and with no hope of repayment. It is literally an act of grace.

[19:17]  ¹² tn The form מַלְוֵה (malveh) is the Hiphil participle from לָוָה (lavah) in construct; it means “to cause to borrow; to lend.” The expression here is “lender of the Lord.” The person who helps the poor becomes the creditor of God.

[19:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “he.” The referent of the 3rd person masculine singular pronoun is “the Lord” in the preceding line, which has been supplied here in the translation for clarity.

[19:17]  ¹⁴ sn The promise of reward does not necessarily mean that the person who gives to the poor will get money back; the rewards in the book of Proverbs involve life and prosperity in general.

[19:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and his good deed will repay him.” The word גְּמֻלוֹ (gÿmulo) could be (1) the subject or (2) part of a double accusative of the verb. Understanding it as part of the double accusative makes better sense, for then the subject of the verb is God. How “his deed” could repay him is not immediately obvious.

[14:7]  ¹⁶ tn In the Greek text of this clause, “me” is in emphatic position (the first word in the clause). To convey some impression of the emphasis, an exclamation point is used in the translation.

[12:8]  ¹⁷ tc A few isolated witnesses omit v. 8 (D sy^s), part of v. 8 (Ì⁷⁵), or vv. 7-8 ({0250}). The latter two omissions are surely due to errors of sight, while the former can be attributed to D’s sometimes erratic behavior. The verse is secure in light of the overwhelming evidence on its behalf.

[12:2]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity and to conform with contemporary English style.

[12:2]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And Martha.” The connective καί (kai, “and”) has been omitted in the translation because it would produce a run-on sentence in English.

[12:2]  ²⁰ tn Grk “reclining at the table.”

[1:9]  ²¹ tn Or “heard about it”; Grk “heard.” There is no direct object stated in the Greek (direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context). A direct object is expected by an English reader, however, so most translations supply one. Here, however, it is not entirely clear what the author “heard”: a number of translations supply “it” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV; NAB “this”), but this could refer back either to (1) “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8, or (2) “your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints” (v. 4). In light of this uncertainty, other translations supply “about you” (TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). This is preferred by the present translation since, while it does not resolve the ambiguity entirely, it does make it less easy for the English reader to limit the reference only to “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8.

[1:9]  ²² tn The term “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but the following reference to “the knowledge of his will” makes it clear that “God” is in view as the object of the “praying and asking,” and should therefore be included in the English translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ²³ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been translated as substantival, indicating the content of the prayer and asking. The idea of purpose may also be present in this clause.

[2:5]  ²⁴ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:6]  ²⁵ tn This is singular: “the poor person,” perhaps referring to the hypothetical one described in vv. 2-3.