Psalms 37:25-26

37:25 I was once young, now I am old.

I have never seen a godly man abandoned,

or his children ¹  forced to search for food. ² 

37:26 All day long he shows compassion and lends to others, ³ 

and his children ⁴  are blessed.

Deuteronomy 15:7-10

The Spirit of Liberality

15:7 If a fellow Israelite ⁵  from one of your villages ⁶  in the land that the Lord your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive ⁷  to his impoverished condition. ⁸  15:8 Instead, you must be sure to open your hand to him and generously lend ⁹  him whatever he needs. ¹⁰  15:9 Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude ¹¹  be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite ¹²  and you do not lend ¹³  him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you and you will be regarded as having sinned. ¹⁴  15:10 You must by all means lend ¹⁵  to him and not be upset by doing it, ¹⁶  for because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you attempt.

Job 31:16-20

31:16 If I have refused to give the poor what they desired, ¹⁷ 

or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

31:17 If I ate my morsel of bread myself,

and did not share any of it with orphans ¹⁸  –

31:18 but from my youth I raised the orphan ¹⁹  like a father,

and from my mother’s womb ²⁰ 

I guided the widow! ²¹ 

31:19 If I have seen anyone about to perish for lack of clothing,

or a poor man without a coat,

31:20 whose heart did not bless me ²² 

as he warmed himself with the fleece of my sheep, ²³ 

Luke 6:35

6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back. ²⁴  Then ²⁵  your reward will be great, and you will be sons ²⁶  of the Most High, ²⁷  because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people. ²⁸ 

[37:25]  ¹ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[37:25]  ² tn Heb “or his offspring searching for food.” The expression “search for food” also appears in Lam 1:11, where Jerusalem’s refugees are forced to search for food and to trade their valuable possessions for something to eat.

[37:26]  ³ tn The active participles describe characteristic behavior.

[37:26]  ⁴ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[15:7]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “gates.”

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

[15:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “from your needy brother.”

[15:8]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “whatever his need that he needs for himself.” This redundant expression has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your eye.”

[15:9]  ¹² tn Heb “your needy brother.”

[15:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “give” (likewise in v. 10).

[15:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it will be a sin to you.”

[15:10]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “by all means.”

[15:10]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “your heart must not be grieved in giving to him.” The LXX and Orig add, “you shall surely lend to him sufficient for his need,” a suggestion based on the same basic idea in v. 8. Such slavish adherence to stock phrases is without warrant in most cases, and certainly here.

[31:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “kept the poor from [their] desire.”

[31:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and an orphan did not eat from it.”

[31:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he grew up with me.” Several commentators have decided to change the pronoun to “I,” and make it causative.

[31:18]  ²⁰ tn The expression “from my mother’s womb” is obviously hyperbolic. It is a way of saying “all his life.”

[31:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “I guided her,” referring to the widow mentioned in v. 16.

[31:20]  ²² tn The MT has simply “if his loins did not bless me.” In the conditional clause this is another protasis. It means, “if I saw someone dying and if he did not thank me for clothing them.” It is Job’s way of saying that whenever he saw a need he met it, and he received his share of thanks – which prove his kindness. G. R. Driver has it “without his loins having blessed me,” taking “If…not” as an Aramaism, meaning “except” (AJSL 52 [1935/36]: 164f.).

[31:20]  ²³ tn This clause is interpreted here as a subordinate clause to the first half of the verse. It could also be a separate clause: “was he not warmed…?”

[6:35]  ²⁴ tn Or “in return.”

[6:35]  ²⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the outcome or result. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation at this point.

[6:35]  ²⁶ sn The character of these actions reflects the grace and kindness of God, bearing witness to a “line of descent” or relationship of the individual to God (sons of the Most High). There is to be a unique kind of ethic at work with disciples. Jesus refers specifically to sons here because in the ancient world sons had special privileges which were rarely accorded to daughters. However, Jesus is most likely addressing both men and women in this context, so women too would receive these same privileges.

[6:35]  ²⁷ sn That is, “sons of God.”

[6:35]  ²⁸ tn Or “to the ungrateful and immoral.” The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.