John Gill Commentary


John Gill Commentary
"For the poor will never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt surely open thy hand unto thy brother, to thy needy, and to thy poor, in thy land." — Deuteronomy 15:11 (ASV)
For the poor shall never cease out of the land
There would be always such objects to exercise their charity and beneficence towards, (John 12:8) , which is no contradiction to (Deuteronomy 15:4) for had they been obedient to the laws of God, they would have been so blessed that there would have been none; so the Targums; but he foresaw that they would not keep his commands, and so this would be the case, and which he foretells that they might expect it, and do their duty to them, as here directed:
therefore I command you, saying, you shall open your hand wide to
your brother ;
not give sparingly, but largely, in proportion to the necessities of the poor, and according to the abilities of the lender or giver; and this must be done to a brother, one that is near in the bonds of consanguinity, and to him a man must give or lend first, as Aben Ezra observes, and then "to your poor"; the poor of your family, as the same writer:
and to your needy in the land ;
that are in very distressed circumstances, though not related, and particularly such as are in the same place where a man dwells; for, as the same writer remarks, the poor of your land are to be preferred to the poor of another place,