Proverbs 22b

The writers of the Book of Proverbs were acute observers of life as it is, the bright side and the dark side. Even today we have our suspicions about rich people having made their money through questionable means, or inherited their money from someone who was crooked. That is not always the case, but it is enough that we have some idea how this makes the poor poorer. What are we to do about it?  

22: 7-9. The rich rule over the poor,

     and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,

     and the rod of anger will fail.

Those who are generous are blessed,

     for they share their bread with the poor. 

The treatment of the poor and needy is a constant Biblical theme:

In the Law (Exodus 22: 25; 23: 3, 6, 11; Leviticus 19: 10, 15; 23: 22; Deuteronomy 15: 11; 24: 14), 

In the Wisdom Literature (Psalms 72: 4, 12; 74:21; 109: 16; 113: 7; 140: 12), and 

In the Prophets (Isaiah 10:2; 25: 4; 41: 17; Jeremiah 22: 16; 16: 49; 18: 12; 22: 29; Amos 8: 4, 6).

So it is no surprise that how one treats the poor and the needy is a persistent theme in the Book of Proverbs as well. We have seen this already, as early as Chapter 3: 27-29:

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,

     when it is in your power to do it.

Do not say to your neighbor, “Go and come again;

     tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with you.

Do not plan harm against your neighbor

     who lives trustingly beside you.

In our current chapter, we see how the poor can be pushed down through having to borrow at high interest rates (see also Exodus 22: 15; Leviticus 25: 36-37), and then kept down by acts of injustice. The rich crave political power in order to take advantage of the poor. That is both yesterday in Israel and today in America. The text says, in effect, ‘They will get theirs’. Their attempts to resist justice will fail.

All this is true. But the last verse also intrigues me. One of my favorite passages is Chapter 8, verses 1-15 in II Corinthians where Paul is advising the congregation at Corinth that he will be coming soon on his rounds to take up a collection for the poor brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, an act he calls “this ministry to the saints.” He warns that other churches have prepared generous gifts, and it would not do for the Corinthian congregation to set a bad example. Paul writes to rally them to the cause. He assures them his request to give is not meant to beggar them, but rather that:

 “...it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written, ‘The one who had much, didn’t have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little’.” (II Corinthians 8: 13-15).

I understand that the Corinthians are well off and thus can afford to share from their abundance. What I was perplexed about was the claim: “so that their abundance may be for your need.” I knew the rich had an abundance, Corinth was a wealthy shipping port in Greece. But I wondered what abundance the poor in Jerusalem had? In passages like this one in Proverbs, I found a clue.

According to verse 9 in our reading, there is an inherent blessing in sharing with the poor. Read it again: “Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.” This is certainly consistent with all the instructions about being generous with the needy, and with Jesus’ warnings about the power of greed and avarice to knock a person right off the straight and narrow way. 

In fact, Paul cites Jesus in his farewell address to the Ephesian church: “In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’.” (Acts 20: 35).

This sentiment was growing in Judaism before the time of Jesus, as revealed in an important second century B.C. manuscript respected by Jews and later by Christians as well. It is a wisdom book much like Proverbs written by Yeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira, or Jesus son of Eleazar son of Sira. The book is sometimes referred to as Sirach, but in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches it is called Ecclesiasticus or ‘the church book’ because it was read so much in church during the first centuries A.D. Protestants also respect the work. Though it is not part of the canon, it was translated as an addition to the King James Version when it came out in 1611.

Jesus son of Eleazar son of Sira said, “Stretch out your hand to the poor, so that your blessing may be complete” (Sirach 7:32).